School age: connecting & communicating

School age: connecting

Connecting with your school-age child

Family relationships are the biggest influence in your school-age child’s social and emotional development. Fitting in with friends is important too.

Praise, encouragement and rewards

Praise helps children feel good about themselves, which boosts self-esteem and confidence. Praise can also encourage good behaviour in children. Read more.

Positive attention and your child

Positive attention is responding to your child with warmth and interest. It helps your child feel secure and valued. Find out how positive attention works.

Building good parent-child relationships

Positive parent-child relationships are important for all areas of children’s development. Read ideas for strengthening your relationship with your child.

Enjoying time with your child: ways to connect

Spending special time with your child can help build your relationship. Get ideas for fun activities that parents, children and families can do together.

Good family relationships: how to build them

Good family relationships help your children feel secure and loved. Here’s how to build relationships with quality time, communication, teamwork and more.

Supporting your child’s school-age friendships

School-age friendships – they loom large for school children. Here’s how to support your child’s friendships and help your child make friends at school.

Helping your child connect with others in the community

Children with strong links to others do well in life. Read how to help children make community connections with friends, neighbours and community members.

School age: communicating

Communicating well with children: tips

Good communication with children means listening well and encouraging your child to listen when you talk. Get tips to improve communication with your child.

Conversation skills for children: talking and listening

How to teach your child to speak politely, take turns talking, not talk back or interrupt, with tips on dealing with interrupting and talking back.

Nonverbal communication: body language and tone of voice

When you communicate with your child, you say a lot without words. Here’s how to improve nonverbal communication like body language and tone of voice.

Talking about school

‘How was school today?’ ‘OK.’ Every afternoon, parents across Australia get the same one-word answer. Here are ideas to get your child talking about school.

Talking about tough topics

Death, sex, divorce, illness and more – these can be tough topics to discuss with children. Get tips for what to say to children of different ages.

Preventing violence against women: teaching children about respect

Prevention of violence against women starts with parents, children and respect. Here’s how to role-model respect towards women and girls for your children.

School age: bilingualism & multilingualism

Singing in a second language: activity for children 0-6 years

Singing is a great way to help your child remember words and sentence structure in a second language. Singing is a fun way to practise language skills too.

Multilingual and bilingual children: benefits and challenges

Multilingualism and bilingualism has benefits and challenges for children and families. Get answers to questions about multilingual and bilingual children.

Raising multilingual and bilingual children: options

Decisions about raising multilingual and bilingual children depend on your family situation and the languages you use at home. Here are ideas for you to try.

Raising multilingual and bilingual children: resources

Many resources can help you raise multilingual and bilingual children. Here are links to bilingual, multilingual and multicultural resources across Australia.

School age: coping with trauma

Death: how to talk about it with children

Death and dying can be hard to talk about with children. Make it easier with our guide to what to say, when to talk and how to answer children’s questions.

When someone dies: helping children cope

Is your child coping with grief or strong feelings after the death of a loved one? Read our guide for helping children cope when someone dies.

Trauma: first response to help children

Here’s what to do straight after your child is involved in a trauma like a serious accident, natural disaster, sudden death or life-threatening diagnosis.

Trauma: supporting your child in the days and weeks after

Read what to do in the days and weeks after a child is involved in a traumatic event – bushfire, car accident, sudden death, critical diagnosis and so on.