Sometimes children have so much to say they just can’t contain their enthusiasm and shout out, interrupting other people when they are speaking. It can appear rude, inconsiderate, and disrespectful, which is not how parents want to bring their children up. Parents want children to learn that they need to listen when someone is speaking (and vice versa).
Interrupting tells the other person that what they say is not as important or interesting as what your child wants to say. We don’t want to raise children who do this, so we need to get them to think about what they are doing. They really need to learn how to let the other person finish their sentence and then wait their turn to speak.
TIPS FOR PARENTS TO STOP CHILDREN INTERRUPTING
Parents can help their children by teaching them how to hold polite conversations. Some skills to consider are:
- Can they tell when someone has finished talking?
- Can they keep what they want to say in their head until it’s time for them to speak?
- Once there is a pause, they can start to talk.
- To get them into this good habit, perhaps you can remind them by using language like ‘please stop interrupting me’, ‘can you hold on a minute’ or ‘please let me finish’ when they interrupt you.
- They should also show they are paying attention by not looking bored and distracted.
It’s great that children have so much to say but they need to be mindful that when talking over people no one can really hear what each other is saying, and that’s not how conversations work. If they continually talk over others, friends may avoid them or get fed up with never feeling listened to, so they should get out of the habit of talking over people and learn valuable conversational skills.
Children who tend to interrupt can also be impulsive children. To pick up more tips to help them with listening, talking and teaching them to have great conversations, take a look at The Parent’s Toolkit. My book is written for parents to help them navigate important conversations with their children, enabling them to help their children grow.
