My Child is Very Confident, But … – How To Track My Child’s Public Speaking Progress

It may be difficult to track and monitor your child’s progress, especially for a soft-skills development programme (such as our public speaking programme). In hard skills/subjects, quantitative grades give a right/wrong image of your child’s journey. In contrast, the subjective interpretation of speaking ability may warp your view of your child’s public speaking confidence. We have encountered this in both extremes – parents who feel their child is more advanced and those who worry excessively about their child’s public speaking journey.

In managing both extremes, the impact on your child may hinder their public speaking journey of growth. On one hand, over-confidence in the young communicator’s level may result in a ‘culture shock’ or surprise when encountering a tough communication setting.  In contrast, lowered confidence in the same communicator may result in self-doubt and silencing of the voice. This difficulty can be managed through a proper matrix that helps you understand your child’s communication journey.

If you have questions about tracking your child’s public speaking level/competency, here are three aspects you can keep in mind!

Age is But a Number, but Experience Counts

As the cliché goes, age is but a number and does not determine the level of one’s skills/competencies. In the public speaking context, age is not the sole factor in determining a communicator’s level. This is a recognition of the fluid nature of public speaking, dependent on the context and setting for the stage. In simple terms, a speaker may be confident one day and flustered the next. With such a flexible starting point, it is important not to place too much emphasis on age alone.

That said, we also recognise that age is instructive – it represents experience. For example, a young communicator will likely receive more speaking opportunities as they progress in education (especially with more presentation-based assignments). As such, it is important to still look beyond the numerical age and consider the unique experiences or stages a young communicator has gone through.

Qualitative Habit-Building

With the clarification above aside, a common (but important) reminder is the distinction between quantitative and qualitative evaluation. We believe in a qualitative approach for public speaking because of the nature of the skills development. As a soft skill, the educational targets are best set as habits to attain. To encourage our young communicators in this regard, qualitative feedback offers an open, incentivised, and practical insight into their performance on stage!

What are these “qualitative” aspects you can look out for? One can unpack and analyse a young communicator’s confidence on stage through various elements (e.g., body language, vocal variety). Start by picking out the starting point – for example, if your child generally speaks with a lower voice, track their progress in their speeches or conversations. The same can also extend to aspects such as hand gestures, vocal variety, or even clarity of thought in their speech.

The Past Pales When Compared to the Future

It is the nature of evaluation that we look more at the ‘past’ of a communicator – we study the presentation they have completed and make observations based on that. However, the strength of an evaluation extends to the steps that a communicator can take to progress in the future. The forward-looking lens is thus necessary for tracking a young communicator’s progress. We need to know the specific exercises or objectives the communicator needs moving forward.

One suggestion is to reframe any feedback or analysis of your child’s speaking level from a ‘what is’ to a ‘what it can be’ perspective. It may be tempting to pick out the flaws/imperfections (and awareness is still important), but take one step further to share specific tips on moving forward. That way, your child’s presentation level is represented by a mix of their current status and the potential they carry on stage.

Track Your Child’s Progress!

Tracking a young communicator’s progress is not a straightforward exercise. We often recommend a training programme that helps guide your child with specific, consistent, and dedicated feedback. However, should you want to monitor your child’s public speaking progress at home, keep the three elements we have shared today in mind!

WATCH: “How To Communicate & Connect Better With My Teenager At Home?”

If you are keen to take your public speaking skills & presentation skills (either business/corporate presentation / kids in-class presentation) to the next level so that you may communicate and deliver speeches with greater flair and charisma, feel free to check out our public speaking/ presentation skills course for adults and public speaking course for children below!

We want to help you bring out the best in your team, organization, and company. Public speaking and communication skills for the workplace, such as persuasion, remain a priority for most corporate training out there. We believe in staying ahead of the curve in sharing the contemporary communication skills to help you and your team remain relevant, competitive and nimble. Through our customized corporate training programmes, your team will benefit from an in-depth, hands-on, and potential-maximising public speaking & presentation skills training programme!

Feel free to reach out to us to curate your own public speaking corporate training programme for your team, company, or organization! Let us help you develop them into highly effective public speakers at work, empowered with effective presentation skills & storytelling skills – them giving speeches with charisma, influence and impact is something you can look forward to!