Topics That Interest Children in a Group

Being part of a larger group of children often presents the first opportunity for a child to speak in front of other people. Speaking in front of a group helps build confidence and boosts communicative competence, according to the National Capital Language Resource Center.

  1. Visual Media and Characters

    • While the specific television shows, movies, video games and fictional characters children want to talk about will vary by age, most children enjoy the chance to talk about something they enjoy watching or interacting with. Each child in the group might be asked to share the title of his favorite movie and provide two or three reasons why he made that choice. This dialogue opens the door to teaching older children how to have a respectful debate about what makes one thing better or worse than something else.

    Family and Home Life

    • Family and home life is something all children are familiar with. Younger children might be asked to name the chores they're responsible for or what kind of pets they have at home. Preschoolers and kindergartners can discuss how many siblings they have, where mom and dad work and who their babysitter is. Older children can discuss how they solve conflict with parents or how they feel about certain rules such as curfew. For older children, these discussions can open doors to share personal opinions, as well as encourage their peers to weigh in on issues most of them deal with, according to the book "Learning to Teach in the Primary School," edited by Teresa Cremin and James Arthur.

    School Life

    • School is a topic familiar to children of all ages and provides a wealth of opportunities to encourage speaking in a group setting. Younger children can talk about what they like to do at recess, their favorite subject and what is hard about school. Older children can talk about how they've grown as students over the school year and compare what they have learned with where they were academically a year or two in the past. Children of all ages tend to be passionate about fairness and rules, so a group conversation might focus on what rules are in place in their school, why they're important and whether they are helpful or not. Let each child share a rule they would like to implement, even if it's silly -- such as cupcakes for lunch every day.

    Personal Topics

    • It's human nature to connect life experiences back to yourself, which means that most people enjoy the chance to talk about themselves. Children are no different. Preschoolers and kindergartners can share when their birthday is, where they went on their last vacation and what their favorite foods, animals, colors and holidays are. Elementary age children are old enough to talk about what sports they play and what books they enjoy reading. Junior high school and senior high school students can share what they want to be when they grow up, what qualities make a good friend and how they would stand up to peer pressure. Letting children talk about themselves promotes comfort with public speaking because they are comfortable in the knowledge of what they're sharing.

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