Expressing thoughts, speaking in complete coherent sentences, the ability to explain a problem or work process to others, lecturing in front of others (even in public) – all these belong to verbal skills.
Verbal means something to do with speech, so everything connected to these skills is connected to our speech. People’s verbal abilities differ – some have very rich vocabulary and can give long, elaborate speeches that are easy to listen to. That is usually because their speech is fluent, they have a pleasant intonation, can quickly react to what someone else said, they use various turns of a phrase, jokes and humor. Other people may also have a rich vocabulary and be good at putting words to paper, but when they have to talk in front of others, they stutter, and their speech is dry and tedious. And yet other people might be very inexperienced speakers and composing words into complex sentences is very difficult for them. An important condition for good verbal skills is a rich vocabulary – we can obtain it by reading (even using audiobooks or e-readers), going to theater, watching movies, talking with other people, telling stories, etc.
People with dyslexia might sometimes have weakened verbal abilities, especially when their reading problems are associated with speaking difficulties (speech-language problems). But! – on the contrary, quite a lot of dyslectic people are very good at using their verbal abilities. Following the motto “if we can’t read and write well, we must talk our way around it” made verbal skills their strong point. They may be excellent speakers, can express themselves very accurately and people around them both admire them and envy them this ability. And never forget that, just like the rest of skills and abilities described in this Encyclopedia, verbal skills can also be practiced.
Tip: Talk to your friends, parents, siblings, even pets. When you learn, explain the subject matter to yourself under your breath, or explain it all later to someone else.
