The 8-year old boy does what he has been practicing and takes the stage with an enrolling question “Raise your hand if you like s’mores!”
People’s smiles widen as they raise their hands. He is the only person under the age of 30 in the entire room and he is owning the stage with confidence and poise. His mother smiles the brightest.
“The most important part of the s’more is the marshmallow and I’m going to teach you how to make the perfect a marshmallow in 5 easy steps.”
He goes on to give a 2-minute speech, using his hands to mime an imaginary stick. He moves with purpose to emphasize how far to stand from the campfire and where to hold the stick. The audience is transported into an experience of being by a campfire.
By the end of the speech, people’s curiosity changes to excitement and they applaud him.
He had been practicing speaking for a full-year and his skills were now way ahead of most of the adults in the room.
Public Speaking is a skill-set and we can build this skill-set quickly if we know where to put our focus.
If you had to focus on one skill to improve your child’s public speaking abilities, choose hand-gestures.
If you had to choose one mind-set, I would recommend “picture what you are saying in your mind.” The mantra for Connection in our program is: “Connection is when the pictures in your head are so clear that your audience can see them too.”
When your child does both of these skills together, he is on his way to being in the top 5% of speakers.
