How to Communicate With Children

Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH)

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.20650
In this podcast, we are joined by Dr. Rebecca Rolland, a Harvard faculty member and author of The Art of Talking With Children, published by HarperCollins, to discuss how we communicate with children.
To set the scene, Rebecca begins by talking about what inspired the book, The Art of Talking With Children, and discusses in what ways she feels that digital media has impacted the way we communicate across and between generations, and also in particular its impact on the mental health of young people.
Rebecca touches upon the impact of the pandemic in terms of communication skills, before commenting on the importance of conversation, in particular daily conversation with kids, in supporting their deeper learning, to reduce conflict, to build their empathy, confidence, and creativity.
Rebecca talks about how to know if what we say to children is helpful, details what a quality conversation with children and young people looks like, and shares tips on how to adapt our conversations to help build empathy and confidence depending on a person’s developmental age.
Rebecca then discusses whether we should adapt our conversations depending on the role we play for a child, for example as a parent or as a teacher, and comments on how we can help children and young people to have quality conversations with their classmates and their teachers.
Furthermore, Rebecca shares her tips for CAMH professionals when conversing with children and recommends rituals and routines that help to bring quality conversations to everyday life.