Is it difficult for your child to share their feelings and communicate with you? Like many parents, do you find that it feels like you’re hitting a wall, when you ask your child about their day and they have no response? Here are some tips to help encourage your child to share their feelings, talk about their daily experiences and increase communication at home!

• Share your own feelings. As we know, modelling behaviours we want to see in our children is one of the most effective ways to encourage positive behaviours. Describe how you feel daily...the good and the bad! Letting your children know how you feel and what you choose to do about it, can model great problem-solving skills.
• Mealtime, such as dinner, is great time to communicate with one another. Talk about the highlights and lowlights of the day! Families who make dinner mandatory, often report that this time is a critical time of day to check-in and communicate with one another.
• For younger kids, bedtime can be an extremely important time of day for kids to share their feelings. Print off a sheet with different emotions on them and use this as a visual guide to ask about different experiences in your child’s life. Going to bed with a clear head can hopefully encourage a positive morning and transition to school. Check out a sample feelings page
• Help label your child’s feelings. If your child is acting angry, help them identify this feeling, what caused the feeling and what different choices they have to help make their problem smaller. For example: “when you stomp your feet like that, it shows me that you might be feeling angry…why are you feeling angry?” “What could you do next time to tell me you’re feeling angry?”
• Validate and acknowledge your child’s feelings when they share them with you…. even if you don’t agree with them. Avoid telling your child how they should feel and praise them when they share their feelings with you.
• Make time to take a break from the busyness and spend time connecting with your child. Make a plan to do something together with your child at least once a week. If parents establish a routine like this, even though the types of activities might change as your child grows-up, the quality time spent together will remain the same.
• Read books, watch television or movies together and explore the characters feelings, decisions they make and what they could have done differently. This can be extremely beneficial with teenagers, as it is often easier to externalize feelings and relate them to other characters.
• Discipline in a calm manner. Try your best not to yell, scream or overreact in situations. If you need a break to calm down, take it- this can be the best way to model emotional regulation for your child. Share your feelings with your child and communicate your expectations with them.