Communication is important for any organization, but for a family unit that spends thousands of hours together every year, it's absolutely essential. Teaching proper communication---especially to children---can be difficult, but using games as a tool for teaching can be an effective way to improve communication within a family---while having some fun at the same time.
Charades
Non-verbal communication is a part of everyday life, even in families. Charades is one game that can teach children about non-verbal communication. Get your family together and have a basket or hat ready with strips of paper with objects, movies, events or other keywords everyone in your family would know. Pick someone to go first and have them stand in front of everyone and get the group to guess the keyword. The person performing cannot speak to get people to guess. Only non-verbal communication may be used. Charades can help children and other family members learn to pay attention to how non-verbal communication affects other people.
Password
Sometimes a word means something different to one person than it does to someone else. Password is an excellent way to reinforce this principle. In password, two people have a set of keywords that one team member must get the other to guess. However, along with the keyword is a list of several other words the person giving clues is not allowed to say. Players must be creative and expand their vocabulary without using hand gestures or other clues to get their teammate to guess the word. Password helps children and adults find new and different ways to express themselves outside of the words and phrases they are used to using.
Telephone
Telephone is one of the most classic communication games, and shows how flawed a message can become when passed within a group of people. This game is most effective when played with a large group of people, such as extended family. Players gather in a circle and determine who will go first. The first person thinks of a phrase or sentence, then whispers it quietly and quickly to the person next to them, who whispers what they heard to the next person---until the message is whispered to everyone around the circle. The last person in the circle then announces out loud the message, which is almost always radically different from the original message. Telephone teaches family members the dangers of assuming you know what a person is saying and the importance of clarifying thoughts and feelings before passing judgment.
