Follow these tips to become a more persuasive speaker
Quite a few of the activities we are sharing to keep kids talking involve them need to persuade others of a particular point of view. Here are some tips to help your children become persuasive speakers:
Top ten style tips for persuasive speaking
- Make eye contact with your audience – let them know you’re talking to them
- Use variety – in your voice, body language and facial expressions – that way you’ll keep everyone’s attention
- Make sure your body language and tone of voice is appropriate to what you’re saying – if you’re talking about something sad don’t smile and vice versa
- Don’t move around too much – you don’t want the audience getting seasick!
- If you stand up straight with your head up and your shoulders back everyone will think you’re confident, even if you’re really feeling nervous
- Try and sound like you care about what you’re talking about – if you sound bored, your audience will be bored too
- Try and pick interesting and persuasive language – if you just say “good” and “bad” all the time it won’t be as effective as picking your words carefully.
- Try and pick examples or analogies that you think are appropriate for your audience – an example from youth culture will be more persuasive to a room of teenagers than to an older audience
- Try and have a strong opening so that you make an impression from the beginning – think in advance of a powerful way to grab the audience’s attention – and a strong closing so that you leave them on a high note
- Have a “sound bite” that you repeat a few times in your speech. Your audience should remember this even if they forget the details.