HI,

I have had the same experience with my daughter who now is turning 7 this year.  It was so hard because as a young child she was a very shy child.  She was fine with her family but when it came to family gatherings she was always near me like glue.  She would only nod her head and same thing as your child say yes and no answers.  At home she was a real chatterbox that you couldn't stop her from talking.  In Kindergarten I knew a few mum's that had girls and brothers the same age as my son that sort of opened her up.  A real opener was when I took her to dance lessons tap/jazz and boy that was the best thing I ever did.  At the end of the year she had to go onto the stage and complete her tap and jazz dance in front of an audience.  I thought she was going to cry or something but she had a lot of confidence and she danced great.  Now she is in Year 1 and has a lot of good friends and this year she wanted to do soccer.  So we put her in and she loved it she scored 3 goals and that boosted her confidence even more. 

If you enrolled her into a sport/activity or something that she will enjoy where there are a lot of children interactiing that will build her confidence and will get her out of her shell.  She will feel good about herself and have the courage to mix with other children and blossom.

I hope this helps you and would love feedback from you.

All the best with this it does take time and will not happen over night.

See how things pan out at school - or are you home-schooling???

One of the boys barely spoke for the first few weeks at school, and apparently this is normal for him.  When I was helping in the class I was told that this was the way he was.  So I asked him direct questions that he had to answer (just as I would any other child), then without hardly missing a beat I gave him option one and option two and he nodded/shook his head to reply.  After a few weeks of this (and I believe his teachers were taking a similar approach from what I observed) I heard his voice!! 

Music to my ears.

It is still a process, he does not volunteer to talk, but he does answer the questions now when addressed directly on a one to one situation.  Even venturing to sentences!  Each child moves at a unique pace and as ong as they are loved and secure I am sure it only takes time.  My daughter wouldn't talk in front of men/males when she first started school.  Kind and understanding parent that I am; I put her into a school with a male principal.  Now she is pretty much ok.  She is still cautious of people she does not know, i like that.  At least she is not befriending strangers in the street!!

All the best with the whole patience thing.  Is there maybe a dance/art /sport /music class or something she could join - something where she can get used to interacting with other chlidren of her age??

Peace
EF.x

She might have anxiety? It's taken me 22 years to learn to talk to people outside of my family. It's not that I don't want it, it's just it's hard for me and I feel very anxious. I want to talk and make new friends and nothing comes out when I'm put on the spot and have the opportunity. It could be a good thing that she doesn't talk to strangers too =P Maybe introduce her to a play group and encourage her to interact but don't push her. The only thing that has helped me is to not be conscious about what I say or embarrassed and I push myself to talk to other people. I've come a long way, my partner used to do all the talking for me and people used to think I was rude.

There are lots of other places then pre-school that children can learn to be socially interactive, Play grounds etc... Children need to learn how to interact socially as part of their developement and parents should try to encourage children as much as possible.

Social, Co-ordination (hand eye), Problem Solving (thinking), Trust, as well as many others are all developement skills learnt through INTERACTION, i.e drawing, playing with toys, playing with other children, chasing a ball, kicking a ball etc...., these are interactions that set up our children for life, and we as parents would be negligent in our responsibility of rearing our children should we not encourage the growth of our children.

Never force a situation that may stress a child if that child is uncomfortable, but persistance and encouragement will lead a child to gain self confidence and self esteem while developing these important interactive skills.

my daughter was like that to and this worked for me.

make sure your in public situations like a bus or a busy park and pull out flash cards or a book and ask her what each picture is. we had an alphabet flash card book that was full of animal pictures and we made it a game to say as many things as possible that started with that letter.

for awhile she may be apprehensive still about talking in front of ppl but she will be more distracted by the book or game so will be more comfortable with talking also after the first few times if you see another child interested ask them to join in!

also are you a social person yourself? do you talk to ppl while your out and about? smile at ppl serving you in shops and make small talk with ppl you arent familiar with in front of her and she may feel that she can too.

good luck i hope this helps!

This sounds like me & my sisters when we were children. Give her time. When she goes to school it will change, she will probably still be shy, but the world cannot be full of extroverts. If she communicates well with family, then her communication skills are fine. Don't make a big deal out of it in front of her & she will eventually grow out of it. If in the future she is still shy, my mother used drama & speech classes to bring us out of our shells. Good Luck.