Maintaining an open dialogue with our children is a priority, but it’s not always easy to get information out of them. The older they get, the more likely they are to give you an exasperated shrug in response to your “How was your day”-type questions. If you have a particularly chatty child, you may even get them to give you some kind of one-word response like “Fine” or “Whatever.”
But, there are some clever ways around the silent treatment.
In my nearly 14 years of parenting two oftentimes-uncommunicative boys, I have a developed a few tricks that have proven extremely effective in getting them to open up and actively engage in conversation with me — and without realizing that that’s what they’re doing.
Life in motion 