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  This weekend was busy with speech contests and speech coaching.

• Public speaking is a valuable skill to acquire.

• This is a skill in which we can assist our youth.

Also, a young friend will be entering a French language speech contest on Tuesday. This 12 year old asked for help to prepare for the contest. I do not speak French, but one of the winners from the Saturday contest is French-speaking. She was able to assist with his coaching on Sunday. The three of us were in different towns but connected online. The young man presented his French speech in front of his iPad. We could see and hear him. This enabled us to comment and offer suggestions.

Effective public speaking is one of the most valuable skills young people can acquire. This can have a lasting impact on them.

Many speech competitions tend to use different judging criteria. The challenge is to find the correct balance between preparation and presentation.

It is important that their experiences help them become effective communicators. We can encourage our youth to not only look at what the judges consider. We can encourage them to create and present effective presentations. This will assist them in noncompetitive communication settings in the future.

• Topic and Purpose -What is the message? Is to inform, entertain or inspire?

• Audience Analysis -What is appropriate to the particular audience?

• Content -Use stories and humour where appropriate.

• Structure – Develop the body – often 3 sections with sub-sections.

• Strong Conclusion -Can be a summary.

• Introduction -What is best method to gain audiences attention? (Note: This is at the end on purpose.)

• Notes vs. Memorization.

• Wording -Appropriate for the audience.

• Movement -Natural, not dramatic or staged.

• Gestures -Effective and natural use of facial, hand and body movement.

• Vocal Delivery -Pace, volume, timbre, pitch, pauses, etc.

• Audience Interaction -How to best do this for this particular presentation.

If you require more details, please contact us.