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Why Public Speaking?

Speaking up is hard, but the fear starts young.

Fear of public speaking is one of the most common fears there is. Research reviews estimate it affects between 21% and 33% of people, and it is often reported as the single most feared situation (Ebrahimi et al., 2019). It usually begins in adolescence. That's why Visions to Voices works with kids early, before that fear has a chance to take hold.

Social-emotional skills set kids up for success.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) teaches kids to understand their emotions, manage challenges, connect with others, and make good decisions. A landmark analysis of 213 school-based SEL programs, covering more than 270,000 K-12 students, found that participants improved not only their social and emotional skills and behavior but also their academic performance, equal to an 11-percentile-point gain in achievement (Durlak et al., 2011). Students in these programs also showed fewer conduct problems and less emotional distress.

How our workshops build these skills:

Every Visions to Voices activity connects to core SEL skills:

  • Projection teaches breathing and posture techniques that help kids calm their nerves and manage stress in the moment (self-management).

  • Tone and phrasing teaches kids to think about how their words land with listeners (social awareness).

  • Practice and feedback gives kids a safe space to give and receive constructive feedback from peers (relationship skills).

Psychologist Albert Bandura found that the most powerful source of confidence is successfully doing something that once felt hard (Bandura, 1977).
 
Every time a child stands up and speaks in our workshops, they're building exactly that kind of confidence.

Youth speaking programs impact.

Studies of speech programs show impressive results:​

 

In Chicago, students who participated in debate were 3.1 times more likely to graduate from high school than similar students who didn't. (Anderson & Mezuk, 2012).

Among the highest-risk students, 72% of speech and debaters graduated, compared with 43% of non-speech-and-debaters (Anderson & Mezuk, 2012).

A 10-year study in Baltimore found that elementary and middle school debaters had higher standardized test scores, were less likely to be chronically absent, and were more likely to attend selective high schools (Shackelford, 2019).

Skills for life.

Communication doesn't stop mattering after school. In a 2025 national survey, more than three-quarters of employers said they look for evidence of strong communication skills when hiring new graduates (National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2025).

 

The confidence kids build today follows them into every classroom, interview, and career ahead.

Give your child a head start

References Anderson, S., & Mezuk, B. (2012). Participating in a policy debate program and academic achievement among at-risk adolescents in an urban public school district: 1997–2007. Journal of Adolescence, 35(5), 1225–1235. Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191–215. Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students' social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82(1), 405–432. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01564.x Ebrahimi, O. V., Pallesen, S., Kenter, R. M. F., & Nordgreen, T. (2019). Psychological interventions for the fear of public speaking: A meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 488. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00488 National Association of Colleges and Employers. (2025). Job outlook 2025. https://www.naceweb.org Shackelford, D. (2019). The BUDL effect: Examining academic achievement and engagement outcomes of preadolescent Baltimore Urban Debate League participants. Educational Researcher, 48(3), 145–157. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X19830998

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