I was a communication professional first before becoming a mom yet motherhood helped me become a better communicator.
Motherhood taught me (at the least, forced me to practice) how to be a good storyteller.
Becoming a good speaker means being a good storyteller. Everybody loves to listen to stories!
But how would you know if you are a good storyteller? The quickest way to know is by reading a story to a toddler.
If you caught their attention (with their eyes glued on you and fascinated with what you are saying) and they listened to you until the end of the story, you are doing great!
But if they start to look in another direction or worse, walk away when you are not even finished yet with “Once upon time…”, hmmm, I think a little more practice is needed.
Motherhood taught me (at the least, forced me to practice) how to be a good storyteller.
Becoming a good speaker means being a good storyteller. Everybody loves to listen to stories!
But how would you know if you are a good storyteller? The quickest way to know is by reading a story to a toddler.
If you caught their attention (with their eyes glued on you and fascinated with what you are saying) and they listened to you until the end of the story, you are doing great!
But if they start to look in another direction or worse, walk away when you are not even finished yet with “Once upon time…”, hmmm, I think a little more practice is needed.
How do you keep their attention? By performing exaggerated movements, using different character voices, doing appropriate facial expressions and having the right intonation (the rise and fall in the sound of your voice) – important skills that a speaker needs to learn and practice.
Toddlers would never lie and they would be the best person to give you feedback on how you tell stories. They will just walk away if they don’t like what they see and hear – the kind of honest feedback you would usually not get from adults (Am I seeing some nodding heads in agreement?).
I remembered one of my mentors when he said, “The most difficult audience are toddlers and children. If you can get their attention and maintain it for a long time, getting the attention of other kinds of audiences would be easy.” This is a good thing to remember and a very challenging thing to do (even for me).
So over the weekend, why not try telling a story to your daughter, son, nephew, niece, or to a friend’s or a neighbour’s child? It would be interesting to know their reaction.
BONUS TIP: If you have time to look around, a good book to read to them would be We're Going on a Bear Hunt, an award-winning classic by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury (my personal favorite too!).
Happy story telling!
Toddlers would never lie and they would be the best person to give you feedback on how you tell stories. They will just walk away if they don’t like what they see and hear – the kind of honest feedback you would usually not get from adults (Am I seeing some nodding heads in agreement?).
I remembered one of my mentors when he said, “The most difficult audience are toddlers and children. If you can get their attention and maintain it for a long time, getting the attention of other kinds of audiences would be easy.” This is a good thing to remember and a very challenging thing to do (even for me).
So over the weekend, why not try telling a story to your daughter, son, nephew, niece, or to a friend’s or a neighbour’s child? It would be interesting to know their reaction.
BONUS TIP: If you have time to look around, a good book to read to them would be We're Going on a Bear Hunt, an award-winning classic by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury (my personal favorite too!).
Happy story telling!