6 essential skills your child can pick up from acting classes

Extracurricular activities are an intrinsic part of a student’s lifecycle. However, the domain of after-school activities is dominated by sports, music lessons, art classes and new-age technologies like coding, machine learning and artificial intelligence among others. As parents, you don’t generally consider enrolling your kids in an acting class, right? Well, scientific studies and developmental experts are of the opinion that kids can learn a lot of life skills and lessons from theatrical practices. Here is how acting lessons benefit children. 

Teamwork 
Acting is a teamwork. The success of every member depends on the performance of the team. So, in an acting class, your child needs to collaborate with others, divide tasks and take joint responsibility of a success or failure. Group engagement for various activities associated with acting evoke a team spirit and camaraderie in kids. This, in turn, helps her build strong interpersonal relationships.  

Communication skills 
Dialogue delivery is the core of an acting lesson. While acting, your child is required to improvise through voice modulation and appropriate body language in order to send the right message to the audience. These activities sharpen his overall communication skill in real life, allowing him to articulate his thoughts in an effective way. Another significant aspect of communication is attentive listening. Theatre demands an actor to pay attention to cues and preceding dialogues. During a performance, your child may also have to up for the blunder of a co-acter who has probably forgotten his lines. All these will make him a smart communicator while enhancing his presence of mind.  

Public speaking  
Speaking in front of a large gathering isn’t easy for all. While some are shy, others are nervous. Acting will help your child overcome this challenge. The ability to speak in front of an audience is a skill required in academic and professional spheres as well.  

Motivation and commitment 
This is greatest gift that acting lessons have for your child. Theatre demands regularity and those involved in acting have to constantly work on themselves in order to stay motivated forever. Acting is hard work and sometimes repetitive too, especially during the rehearsals. One has to practise the same shot or enact the same scene time and again to reach perfection, or at least close to it. This requires a lot of motivation, commitment and tenacity. If your child is involved in acting from a very young age, all these attributes will help him grow up with a well-rounded personality.  

Problem solving ability 
The capacity to solve a problem is a skill that is required in all the spheres of life.  Acting lessons teach your children to think on their feet, analyse a situation, spot a problem and come up with a range of solutions. Additionally, other activities associated with theatre, using props, conceptualising lights and music, etc. allow them to think of creative, out-of-the-box fixes.  

Empathy  
While playing a particular role, your child needs to dissociate from the self and put himself in the shoes of the character he is playing. He needs to internalise the joys, sorrows, troubles and situations of that character. This is the crux of empathy, the ability to look into a situation through someone else's lens.