How to Help Your Child Prepare for Oral Presentations
Students are introduced to giving speeches or oral presentations at different grades, some as early as grade 1. Whatever grade they may be in oral presentations can be daunting. We put together some tips that will assist you in making their learning process successful and help build their confidence.
1. Understand the subject of discussion
Your child will either be assigned a topic or given the option to choose one. If they have already been assigned a topic, and are not familiar with it, they would need to start researching.
If they get to choose the topic, you can help with brainstorming topics that your child finds interesting.
Find out what type of oral presentation it is, how long it needs to be and any other requirements.
2. The structure of a speech
Most types of presentations have an introduction, body and conclusion. Your child needs to understand what each section of that structure means and what it would require from him.
- Introduction: This tells people a little about the presentation to come. It needs to be exciting and hold the audience’s attention.
You can start your introduction with a question, quote or even ask your audience to imagine a scenario related to your topic. - Body: This is where the bulk of your information will go as well as the main ideas of your speech.
This should take between 2 to 5 main points. This needs to be clear and well organised to get your point across without any confusion. - Conclusion: This is where you can reinforce what you have spoken about.
There are many fun ways to conclude a speech. You can remind your audience of this by answering a question you may have previously asked.
You can end it by asking your audience to do something, with an inspiring quote or joke. This should be kept to a few sentences and needs to be clear that you are now done.
3. Check your child's draft speech
When your child is done researching, they will then draft their speech. Once they are done you can check it for any major problems or any suggestions you may have.
You must teach your child that all speeches need multiple revisions, even the president’s speeches go through multiple people and are checked to be the best they can be.
4. Visual aids
These can be a poster, slides or an object about their speech. If your child is nervous remind them that the visual aids will take the audience’s eyes away from them and onto these objects.
5. Speech cards
While you don’t need visual aids, having speech cards will help reassure your child from forgetting their speech. You can have the main points jotted down. After practising, you can identify which parts your child is likely to forget. You can also write these parts down on their speech cards. You may sometimes be required to have your child’s entire speech written on speech cards. You can check on this beforehand.
6. Have your child practice their speech
If this is your child’s first speech, you should give a demonstration of what is expected. Your child can then ask you any questions they may have.
Let your child read their speech a few times to get familiar with it. You can follow along and help when you need to step in. They can practice in front of the mirror to help them see themselves and adjust their posture and facial expressions.
Public speaking is a kind of performance. They need to speak in a way that grabs and holds the audience’s attention. You need to sound clear and loud enough so that the audience can hear you.
Make sure your child isn’t talking too quick or too slow but at a pace, they are comfortable with that the audience can still follow along with. Remind them to take breaths and pauses in between. Speeches make us nervous we tend to breathe too quickly. Encourage them to take slow deep breaths to help calm them.
If possible, have a glass of water nearby. This will help your child from experiencing a dry mouth. This can also help if your child forgets something and needs to buy some time.
Emphasise the importance of eye contact. This should not be something they shy away from, rather it is important to connect with your audience.
Your child needs to maintain composure throughout the speech. They may come across rude children, not being able to hold the audience’s attention or making mistakes as they talk. Remind your child to maintain their calmness, smile, ignore any rude children and correct any mistakes they may have made.
7. Practice with an audience
You should encourage your child to practice in front of people. They can do this at home in front of the family or with their friends. This will ease them into speaking in front of a crowd.
By your child pitching their speech to an audience they will get an idea of what speaking in front of a class will be like.
8. Build your child's confidence
On the day of the speech remind your child that they have practised enough, they have mastered their material and that they have a really good speech.
They should know that nerves are normal and natural and that everyone gets them. Remind them of the work that they put in and of how proud you are of them.