The word “practice” is something that you should keep at the front of your mind as you think about communicating with your child. Practice implies two things:

• Communication is something that takes work.
• If you don’t use the skill, you lose the skill!

Think about the way that athletes typically learn and practice. They start with “easy” skills and progress to “harder” or more advanced skills. Watch professional players warming up before a game—lobbing balls, running slowly—“warming up!”

Parents and caring adults can decide to take the same approach when communicating with their children! Think of your communications with youth as a simple game of catch with a beach ball. You’re standing in a circle, and this ball is very light. It travels slowly, it goes from one person to another, and it’s easy to catch.

If you are regularly “warming up” with beach ball messages, it makes it easier for you to progress to the more difficult messages—like throwing a tennis ball or a baseball. These messages are a little harder to send and to catch, so you’ll need to work up to them!

And, finally, there is the most difficult message—“the slippery egg”—which is very difficult to deliver, and equally difficult to catch. The consequences of dropping it are also pretty ugly.

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