Does communicating with family members give you stress? Do you feel like what you say is not what they hear? Do you sometimes think you are talking to aliens from another planet?
If so, then your family is just like millions of other families.
According to studies, family relationships matter, especially when feeling making a connection between parents and youths. Communication is a top factor in building a healthy family structure.
Because the dynamics of families today are diverse, communication may need to be diverse also. It’s a fact that good communication is one of the best ways to strengthen bonds. No matter what your family looks like, it is never too late to build communication skills from single-parent to grandparents as parents.
You may be wondering, what are practical communication skills? We have the answer.
Effective Communication Skills
Communication is an action with specific goals. Meaning, you can fight, as long as you fight the right way using methods that lead to resolution. It is okay to express your feelings as long as you express your feelings appropriately.
Communication involves respect, love, caring, empathy and helps you understand your loved ones better. Effective communication means you use both verbal and physical language to reach positive outcomes.
Below are 15 fun communication exercises to try with your family members today.
What Do You Mean?
In this activity, you and your family members will define different words important to healthy relationships. Each of you should have a blank sheet of paper and a pen or pencil. Or dry erase boards for each person.
Before the game begins, write words on note cards. For example, one card will read "Love," another card will read "Disappointment," another says "Respect," and so on. Each family member will take turns drawing a card. When the card is drawn, each of you will write your definition for the word on your sheet of paper, without anyone else viewing what you wrote. Then, share your definitions.
You may be surprised to learn the differences in how your family defines important words- helping you understand why there are miscommunications within your group.
Follow My Instructions!
Good communication involves both talking and listening. This activity is relatively simple. Choose one member of your family to be the instructor and then rotate until each person has had a chance to give instructions.
The instructor will choose an activity that the rest of the group must do with their eyes closed or blindfolded, such as folding a piece of paper. The instructor gives each family member a piece of paper. With their eyes closed, they listen for instructions on folding the paper (fold in half, fold diagonally, fold the right edge, etc.).
Give at least seven different instructions. When done, tell everyone to open their eyes and look at their creations. Everyone will have different results- showing you that each person perceives instructions differently.
Let Your Art Speak!
You don’t have to be a skilled artist to have fun with this creative communication building game. Your family can choose to use paper and markers or crayons, blank canvases and paints, or other materials to create a piece of art.
To complete the activity, each family member should create a drawing, painting, or other artwork that expresses how they feel about their family role. Then, once finished, each person describes their art, allowing you to discuss how they are essential to the family structure.
Mime for A Minute
Nonverbal communication says just as much as verbal. It is important to learn how to speak nonverbally properly. What better way than to pretend you are a mime?
Mimes use their hands, eyes, facial expressions, and entire bodies to get a message across. You can do the same in this fun activity.
Take turns communicating a message, but without speaking.
What Would You Do?
In this fun communication skill-building game, you can get to know your family members better by learning how they react in different situations. Before the game, create a list of questions about different scenarios. One example is, "What would you do if someone bumps into you at the grocery store but does not apologize?" or, "What would you do if you caught your best friend talking about you behind your back?"
This gives you a chance to work on skills like assertiveness versus aggressiveness.
Emotional Emojis
Print out pictures of many different emojis. Give each member of your family the same stack of the printed emojis. To start, you may want to have a group discussion about the emotions expressed in the emojis.
Then, to take this activity one step further, you can tell different stories that invoke emotions. During and after the story being told, family members can hold up the emotional emoji they feel at the time. They can even describe the feeling verbally, helping everyone understand why they think the way they do.
Three Truths and a Lie
Sitting in a circle, each family member takes turns, telling the group 4 things about themselves. Three of those self-descriptions will be true; one will be a lie. The other family members will have to guess which is the lie and which are truths.
This simple activity lets you practice communicating information about yourself and getting to know each other on a deeper level.
In conclusion, you and your family can do hundreds of activities to improve your communication skills. These seven can help you get started.
Do not get too caught up in whether you complete the games successfully or not. It is more important to work together as a team, to have fun, and to increase the amount of time you spend with each other. If you start to run out of ideas or notice more significant complications than expected, reach out to a licensed family therapist who can give you more ideas and help you break through communication obstacles.
Your family’s communication skills can improve in a short time, and you will notice a closer, more meaningful bond.