Raise your hand if you think the loudest kid in your class is your best speaker. Although our speakers may talk a lot, communication is more than just talking a lot. It’s about listening as much as talking, expressing thoughts and feelings clearly, and finding the confidence to use your voice even when it’s difficult.
The good news is that communication is not a fixed feature. It’s a skill. And like any skill, it can be learned and taught. Research has found that the long-term impact on children with communication disorders can be seen across academics, relationships, and emotional well-being. That’s no small feat. It’s a matter of making communication instruction a priority, not an afterthought.
Here’s what effective communication looks like for kids, why it’s so important, and six ways to build it in your classroom, including resources from the Van Andel Institute for Education.
What is Communication Actually Do You Look To Children?
It’s easy to think that the best speakers in class are the ones who talk the most. But effective communication with children is more complicated than that.
Clinical psychologist Dr. Janice Galizia redefines what communication skills really look like: “Effective communication in children is not always seen as the fastest raised hand or the loudest student.”
That pause—when the child asks himself, “What am I trying to say and why?”—is where real communication begins. According to Dr. Galizia, when children are supported in taking that short step of reflection, they are better able to organize their thoughts, speak more clearly, and feel more confident when they speak. In the classroom, it may look like a child repeating words mid-sentence or saying, “Wait, let me try that again.” There is no doubt about that. That is skill building.
According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, effective communication for children involves more than speaking clearly. It includes things like active listening, nonverbal cues like reading facial expressions and body language, emotion regulation, and the ability to understand and respond to others. These skills develop together and reinforce each other over time.
Why Communication Skills Are Important Outside of the Classroom
Communication skills do more than shape how children communicate. They make a way for children to hear about them. Dr. Galizia sees this firsthand in her work as a therapist. “There is a strong relationship between communication and self-confidence. The more confident children feel, the more willing they are to express themselves. And when they can speak effectively and feel understood, that confidence grows.”
The opposite is equally true: Children who can’t find words or are afraid to communicate often stop trying. That’s a cycle teachers are in a unique position to disrupt, but only if communication is taught intentionally. Here is the way.
6 Ways to Teach Communication in Your Classroom
1. Take a break and write down
There are many ways to communicate without spoken words, and writing letters is one of the most targeted. The VAI Academic Letter Template from March to Read on a Timely Topic gives students a structured way to organize and share their thoughts with someone who isn’t in the room.
When children have to write down what they say, they slow down, make decisions, and may discover that communication is as much about accuracy as it is about speaking. That’s a shift worth modeling too. As Dr. Galizia put it: “From ‘Who knows the answer?’ that ‘Let’s all take a few seconds to think’ reinforces that clarity is more important than speed.” When teachers say things like “Let me think about how I want to say this,” they are showing students that communication is a thought process, not an action, and writing letters is a great way to help build this habit.
2. Say it with pictures
Sometimes the most effective speakers know when not using words. VAI Education’s Craft a Collage activity, from Our Classroom’s Timely Theme, invites students to visually represent classroom norms—a low-stress entry point for children who struggle to express ideas verbally. Choosing images to represent concepts is your way of communicating, and often reveals how well students understand (or don’t do it currently).
3. Discuss the game with respect
Academic vocabulary becomes more interesting when students have to argue about it. VAI Education’s Apples to Apples Science Edition, from their Sports and Careers section, gives students the opportunity to discuss, debate, and present their case, all while reviewing key content principles. The game creates the exact same kind of low-level, engaging practice that builds real confidence in communication.
4. Contact the robot
Here’s a challenge readers will really care about: Say it better than AI. Beat the Bot from VAI’s Games and Activities section gives students written or spoken prompts and asks them to respond in a warm, angry, and expressive language model that can’t cheat. It reframes communication as a distinctly human skill, worthy of advancement in this AI-driven world.
5. Hold on (listen anyway)
Expressing an opinion is one skill. Treating it with respect when there is a disagreement is another thing. In VAI Education’s Man of Steel, from Daily SEL Activities, students are challenged to share their ideas and engage authentically with someone who sees things differently. That combination—encouragement and active listening—is exactly what real-world communication requires. Dr. Galizia puts it well: “When we give children permission to slow down and reflect, we not only improve the way they speak, but we help them trust that what they say is useful, and that they can choose how they say it.”
6. Guide someone into the unknown
In VAI Education’s A-Maze-ing Maze, from Daily SEL Activities, one student talks a blindfolded classmate through the maze using only verbal directions. It’s a clear, quick lesson in what it really takes to communicate clearly: word choice, sequencing, precision, patience. This exercise turns that vague idea into concrete, as students hear in real time how much it costs to be unclear and what it means to fix it.
The Bottom Line
Communication is not just a soft skill. It is the infrastructure for learning and makes collaboration, critical thinking, and self-expression possible. When teachers create connections intentionally, through the activities they choose, the questions they ask, and the culture they create, the benefits are everywhere. It improves the way students interact, the way they interact with others, and the way they see themselves.
Children who learn to pause, think, and say what they mean carry that skill into your classroom.
