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Verbal fluency: 12 psychological tricks to improve it

Verbal fluency: 12 psychological tricks to improve it

March 27, 2024

The human being is continuously communicating with those around him, using different types of language.

One of the main ones is oral language, speech. Communicating orally and doing it in a fluid, understandable way that allows the transmission of meanings with ease is something that is taken for granted in most people, while not being able to do so supposes a high level of functional limitation. Fortunately, verbal fluency is a trainable skill .

In this article we present a dozen tricks that can help us improve our level of verbal fluency.

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The concept of verbal fluency

In order to train verbal fluency correctly, we first need to know what we are training. For that reason we are going to make a brief comment about what this concept implies.


We understand verbal fluency to the ability to establish a dialogue in a clear and spontaneous way , establishing connections between phrases and ideas in a natural way and not forced so that the speech appears as continuous and prolonged in time. A fluid speech will allow to transmit ideas and information to the receiver in an understandable way, with an appropriate rhythm and avoiding unnecessary pauses and breaks in rhythm and tone that could alter comprehension.

The absence of verbal fluency can have different causes, from normative as certain types of character or the absence of practice in the use of language (for example when we learn a language we are little fluent, or in situations of deprivation of stimulation) until the presence of alterations and neurological disorders, as in Broca's aphasia.


A dozen tricks to improve our verbal fluency

Fortunately, verbal fluency is a skill that can be trained , there are multiple ways to improve it. Then we leave several tricks and commonly used strategies for it.

1. tongue twisters

Fluency is acquired through practice. One way to do it more or less enjoyable is through the use of tongue twisters . Although they pose a challenge for the majority of the population, they allow the subject to challenge himself to complete more or less prolonged sequences of words with similar sounds and with few pauses between them. If we are trying to improve a child's fluency, it is useful to see it as a game and not punish mistakes or slowness, otherwise it could generate frustration and reluctance to do so.

2. Theatricalization of scripts and role-playing

One way to improve verbal fluency can be found in the use of theatricalization . It is a pleasant way in which the person is going to have to expose themselves publicly, recounting a text that must have been studied and repeated many times before. The use of representation and dramatization, costumes, scenery and gesticulation allows to improve fluency in a fun and entertaining way.


3. Talk about topics in which we have domain

To speak fluently we have to have confidence in what we are saying . Although in daily life the topics of conversation and what we are going to have to communicate can vary enormously, it can be useful in order to start training the fluency that talks about topics over which the trained subject has a certain mastery. Knowing what he is talking about will make him prolong his speech and gradually gain confidence in his abilities.

4. Elaborate a story among all

Cooperative activities also reinforce verbal fluency. One of the ways to do it is to make a story in a cooperative way, chaining words and forming sentences with meaning . Each component of the group should repeat what the previous ones have said and add a word or phrase, so that in the long run the flow of words increases and they see themselves making an increasingly complex and fluid story.

5. Self-instructions out loud

It can be useful to ask the subject to perform an action and as he carries it out he will explain the actions and steps what is he doing? In this way, fluency can be improved in a more unconscious way, since the person will be focused on the realization of the activity itself.

6. Repeat tasks

One of the most used techniques, is based on making the subject repeat what we have said . Initially, relatively short words and phrases are used, in order to increase in complexity as they are able to overcome their extension with a normal rhythm and speed.

7. Songs

Another little trick that can increase our verbal fluency is to sing . Through the song we are replicating the sounds and the intonation of the song's authors, producing an increasingly prolonged speech and we will try to adapt it to the parameters with which we have listened to it.

8. Explanation of images

A habitual trick that can allow an improvement of verbal fluency is make the subject to train must explain the content of an image that reflects a situation , whose complexity may vary. If a simple and short explanation is offered (for example, a wedding is observed and the subject is limited to saying the word that identifies the situation), you can ask questions about it.

9. Similarities

Another task that can be seen as a game is to ask the subject that expresses the similarities or differences between two elements, which must be very noticeable and clear at the beginning and more abstract as it progresses.

10. Learning vocabulary and expressions

In order to be fluent in the language, it is necessary to have a knowledge base about what things are and what they are called , so that in case you do not have enough vocabulary it is necessary to implant it little by little. Although this does not generate the verbal fluency per se, it is a necessary requirement that facilitates it.

11. Tasks based on shifts

Sometimes verbal fluency is diminished not by lack of speed, but by excess of this . In this sense, the realization of games or activities that demand turns or perform certain breaks. It does not have to be a language-only task, but also motor tasks (such as the English hideaway) or discussions can be used.

12. Time limit

Setting time limits to say something can be useful if you experience it as a game or a competition . For example, it may be proposed to carry out an exposition of a specific topic in which certain information has to be reflected for five minutes, in order to reduce the time available for that purpose, having to keep the proposed information on each occasion.


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