Teaching children to communicate better

The children of the First Communion Class of the Holy Cross RC Church, Santa Cruz took part in a session on ‘Mindful Communication’ on February 17.  The interactive presentation by Holy Cross FLU member, Denyse Johnston, was built upon a similar session done last year for the 2017 First Communion class. The aim was to focus on interpersonal communication and to help the children to become more aware of the verbal and non-verbal messages that they send as they interact with others.

The children readily identified speaking and listening as means of communication. The presenter guided them to identify two other methods: the importance of thinking (before speaking and as a means of focusing while listening) and actions (non-verbal communication). After exploring these methods of communication, the children then applied each one to communicating at church.

Using the first letters of the methods of communication (speaking, listening, thinking and action), the acronym SALT was developed by rearranging the letters. This acronym was presented as a tool to help the children to remember the elements of mindful communication. Dialogue, games and a PowerPoint presentation were used in the session.