If you stutter, it can feel like it affects your communication on every level. But there is more to communication than just speech! Everyone can learn to be a better communicator by understanding more about good communication skills.

Good Communicators

Conversations work best when both people use good communication skills. To be a good communicator you should:

• Look at people when you talk to them
• Stand at an appropriate personal distance - not too close but not too far away
• Speak clearly and slowly
• Be aware of the situation you are in and use the appropriate language

How Communication Changes

You spend much of your life interacting. Everyday, you talk to many different people for different reasons. You choose different words and ways of speaking depending on who you are talking to.

You change your communication style depending on:

• Audience - who you are talking to
  e.g. a friend vs the school principal
• Relationship - how well you know the person
  e.g. your parents vs a shop assistant
• Environment - where you are having the conversation
  e.g. in your house vs on busy a train
• Reason/purpose- why you are communicating
  e.g. giving a class presentation vs ringing your grandparents

Also, you can alter the meaning of your message by changing your:

• Word stress - to emphasise the main word in a sentence
• Tone of voice - to show emotion e.g. being friendly, angry or cheeky
• Volume - to emphasise an important point with a quiet or loud voice
• Pausing - to make a point or give the listener time to think
• Rate - speaking quickly or slowly

Non-verbal Communication

Communication can be both verbal and non-verbal. Two-thirds of the meaning of any conversation is shown through non-verbal behaviour7. Be aware of your non-verbal communication so you send the right message!

Non-verbal communication involves the use of:

• Eye contact - Shows that you are listening and interested in the conversation
• Facial expression - Shows emotions such as boredom, interest, happiness, sadness or anger
• Body contact and touch - Also shows emotions such as admiration, affection, love, fear or agression
• Gesture -Shows emotional states e.g. nail biting can show nervousness, impatience or tiredness; gesture can also pass a message without words e.g. waving and pointing
• Posture - Shows emotion e.g. anger = tense posture, and confidence = open stance
• Personal distance - Shows your relationship with a person. e.g. you may stand close to your family or girl/boyfriend, stand a bit further from your classmates, and further again from a shopkeeper or stranger