How to make your kid a superstar by conquering stage fear

Human beings are inundated by phobias and fears of various kinds. Among them, the fear of Public Speaking catches our immediate attention as researches show that 75% of people suffer from this condition. It can prove fatal as it would make one feel less confident and prove detrimental to his/her career in the long run.

One can see it coming…Standing in front of hundreds of people, all of a sudden, in trepidation, the body is shaking, everything becomes foggy, and then…You start fumbling for words…Out in the dark, with a lump in your throat, you realize that words aren’t coming at all…They have drained all of a sudden…Such a jolt to your self- esteem and you start falling into the depths of self- doubts and anxiety. When you are in your formative years, this can be a serious issue.

Have you ever thought about what is causing it and what could be the possible remedies?

Glossophobia, as it is officially known, is the fear of facing an audience. Anxiety creates panic, forming a chain reaction of having numerous thoughts, rendering you helpless and dysfunctional. The constant anticipation of a negative outcome would end up in predictable chaos.

Issues like lack of adequate experiences in Public Speaking and inferiority complexes would also deter children from developing a healthy self- image.  We need to be careful in helping children in developing healthy personalities as issues like these would act as bulwarks towards healthy transformation into confident individuals. So, what can one do about it?

Inculcating self- confidence is an arduous task. In this regard and these are some of the tips that could alleviate the pain of public speaking fear and boost the self- confidence-:

1. Watching oneself in the mirror-:

This is similar to speaking to another person. By doing it, you can pay attention to your facial expressions, gestures, body movements, etc. This constant introspection would allow one to rectify the damage done by the fear of public speaking.

2. Practicing meditation

Meditation is an essential way to organize one’s thoughts and regain composure. This would make one face challenges with a calm state of mind.

3. Recording your Voice

This is a good option as it would allow you to analyze and make mental notes on how can you better yourself, such as your speaking style, etc. This would enable you to slowly conquer your fear of public speaking.

4. Working on breathing

When you work on your breathing, you’ll get into a relaxed state of mind, thus getting into a rhythm. This would reduce stress and improve clarity.

5. Interacting more with people

By engaging in small talks, you can certainly improve your conversational skills. The more one interacts with others, the more he will be able to catch unwritten rules of socializing, such as social cues, and it’s much better we have to nurture public speaking skills in young children.

6. Practicing with a subject you care

The passion involved would make you speak more confidently and comfortably. This is essential too, as the grip you are having on the aforementioned subject would make you have the essential flow when you start talking. Facing an audience won’t be an issue in this regard. By selecting topics for public speaking meticulously we can do a lot better.

7. Encouraging Children to participate in stage activities

Activities like dancing, singing, or recitation involve facing an audience, and this could give a big push to the self-esteem of children.  Facing such an audience would slowly make fear diminish and make them face the world with a more confident, realistic perspective.

Generally, schools, as they are the places where children can develop better personalities, as teachers would guide them in many facets concerning how they view the world, can act as the instigators of developing necessary skill sets. By engaging them in activities that would give a stimulus their intellectual and creative potential, this would make them more confident. Children will develop a sound understanding of the art of conversation and this would give a fillip to their future sojourns. Our history is peppered with anecdotes about great orators, like Thomas Carlyle and Marcus Tullius Cicero, who even composed speeches on the spur of the moment. There is a career aspect too regarding this, as many of the professions today demand confident, constant interactions with clarity.  Many Schools have understood this and has incorporated the art of Public Speaking as part of their curriculum. In this regard, some of the Schools in India too are not at all lagging behind their compatriots in the west. For example, we at Orchids the International school, strive hard to use innovative techniques in order to beat Glossophobia. Some of them include-:

1.            Script narratives-: This would allow children to follow a trajectory, making it much easier to follow.

2.            Small Talks -: As human beings are social animals, we yearn for social interactions. Social skills, as per Psychology, involve mirroring, as children try to imitate what they see in their surroundings.   They would learn social cues from the elders and in this aspect, it is very important in their further development. By making them aware of the importance of small talks, the school aims to make them lose the fear of public speaking.

3.            Poetry Recitation-: This would inculcate the basic sense of aesthetics in children, and by reciting in front of an audience; your confidence would soar sky-high.

4.            Mirror Sessions-: This would give the child a chance to observe him/her, her gestures, body movements etc, from where they can improve.

5.            Personality grooming-: Personality is an attribute that is derived from the myriads of factors and by engaging them in activities that would act as catalysts of better self- esteem, better personality traits can be inculcated.

6.            Vocabulary enhancement-:  Vocabulary is the soul of any language and linguistic skills involve rigorous practice. At Orchids, we give prime importance to this by ushering them to the world of books and using innovative teaching/learning methods.

7.            Conversational skill- building-:  We cannot deny the fact that conversation is a skill. It has to be built by talking with people and thus constantly interacting with the environment. Shyness is a trait that comes from a negative self- image. One has to be confident and radiate the light of positivity when he/she is amongst people. The School intends to make children understand, through subtle methods, the importance of conversations in our lives, and how the skill can be enhanced.

As our program covers pre-primary and primary, this would eventually pave a path for better self- esteem. Stressing on areas such as comprehension, response, grammar and presentation skills, fluency, they would enhance the necessary conversational skills of children.

The Core idea of education is to develop children into well- rounded personalities. As public speaking is one of the important parts in developing a healthy self- image, having a program essentially for that can take them to places.

PS-: Some of the images are taken from Google.