Here are some more suggestions for successful parenting techniques in communicating with your children: 

• Remember, parents act as role models to their children; the way you communicate is the way your children learn to communicate.  If you don’t like the way your children express themselves, who did they learn it from?
• Instead of giving a child orders, give the child choices.  “Do you want to clean your room before dinner or after dinner?”     The more choices you give, the more the child feels in control and will usually be more willing to do what is asked.
• Whenever you catch your child doing something right, give some positive feedback.  Instead of saying, “what a great job,” say, “I like how you cleaned the counter; it looks so much better.”
• See if you can give your child twice the number of positive statements as you do negative feedback during the day.
• Let your children finish their thoughts; do not interrupt them.  It’s important for them to think about what they want to say and verbalize it.
• Don’t forget to look in your child’s eyes and warmly say, “I love you,” every day.