How to Talk to Your Kids so They Respond

By Nicole Santamaria
October 14, 2021

In this blogpost, I’m going to dive deep into how to talk to your kids, what to say to them and the best way to say it so that they really respond and get the most of what you’re trying to teach them.

Have you ever asked your child, “Do you need help?” or “Do you have any questions?” Only to be met with a blank stare?

As I’ve been back in the classroom, this is something I see a lot of with the kids I work with.

A lot of times kids don’t know they need help, or they’re so confused that they don’t even know where to begin to ask for help.

Here’s how you can switch how you talk to your kids so they respond better.

Prefer to watch this content? Watch my video about How to Talk to Your Kids below! ⬇

How to Talk to Your Kids

The best way to get your kids to respond to you is to change the way you ask your questions.

Instead of just asking, “Do you need help?” or “Do you have questions?”

Let’s say your child is working on a homework assignment or maybe your students are working on some math problems in class.

Reframe your question and ask, “When you get to problems one through three, I want you to stop and see if there’s anything you were stuck on or you think you were stuck on. Then come and ask me for help.”

All of a sudden, this takes the big, broad question of, “Do you have any questions?” and narrows it down specifically to a certain number of problems, which is so much more manageable for our kids.

How to talk to your kids so they respond to your questions-handwriting-quote

This questioning technique also works well when you know a specific student, and if you’re a parent, you know your child is not one to ask for help.

When you come by and ask specifically, “Hey, how was number one? Did you understand how to do it?” Or, “Hey, how was number one? Do you think you got the right answer?”

You can see that when you’re specific and very explicit about our questions, it will jog your kids to be like, “Actually, I didn’t understand this part of the question” versus “Nope,” no answer.

Go ahead and change how to talk to your kids and give these a try and let me know how it works.