Persuasive speech on carseats? (for my speech class)

leighi123 · Apr 11, 2011

I'm supposed to do a "persuasive" speech for my class and wanted to do it on carseats.

In my class, I know at least one person has a newborn, several have kids 0-7, and at least 3 work at day care centers.

I only have 8 min to speak.

What topic should I focus on that is "persuasive", and that I could narrow down to only 8 min (I gave a speech for almost an hour the other day on carseats, so the challenge is narrowing it down and making it a persuasive thing)

J-max · Apr 11, 2011

I would do the extended rear facing. Esp with the new recommendations out, I think there is a lot of talk and interest on that. You could cover what the law is, what best practice is, the new recommendations, and why you should RF for as long as possible - be sure and include the comfort/what they do with their legs.

leighi123 · Apr 11, 2011

J-max said:
I would do the extended rear facing. Esp with the new recommendations out, I think there is a lot of talk and interest on that. You could cover what the law is, what best practice is, the new recommendations, and why you should RF for as long as possible - be sure and include the comfort/what they do with their legs.

This is what I was initially thinking, but the age range of the kids people in the audience are associated with is 0-7yr olds, not a whole lot in the 0-2 group which are the ones that are best to 'convince' of ERFing.

I was thinking maybe doing "kids should stay at any stage of carseat as long as possible" and cover ERFing, harnessing until 4-6, and boostering until they pas 5-step. Its a lot to cover, but I would just be talking about why to stay at each stage longer. Usually the speeches you have an intro, 3 main points, and conclusion - so that would cover my 3 main points. But is that too much?

The ERF one is good sense we have the current relevant AAP update, so thats a good 'reason' for covering the topic.

mamakc · Apr 11, 2011

leighi123 said:
I was thinking maybe doing "kids should stay at any stage of carseat as long as possible"

This is what I would suggest. Making the point that children are not "minimums" Esp since I see you're in FL and kids can be out of seats altogether at what..3 or 4?

leighi123 · Apr 11, 2011

mamakc said:
This is what I would suggest. Making the point that children are not "minimums" Esp since I see you're in FL and kids can be out of seats altogether at what..3 or 4?

The law is insane here! They must be in a safety seat (which includes harnessed seats and boosters) until age 3. 4-5yr olds must be restrained, but the regular seatbelt counts.

And the violation fine is only $60.

So yeah, most kids once they are 3-4 are in NOTHING. Its so scary!

VoodooChile · Apr 11, 2011

I like the idea of your overall topic being "best practices", and individual subtopics (whatever your professor calls them) as ERF, appropriate harnessing, and boostering to 5-step.
I'm a speech/English teacher and whenever I teach speech I'm a stickler for organization, since your audience only gets one shot at it, kwim.

Mom2FiveGirls · Apr 11, 2011

I had to write a paper a couple years ago for my argument based research class. We had to pick a topic and write a series of papers on it. I can email you a copy of my "big" (biggest part of my grade) if you'd like. My topic was should car seat laws be more strict or not. Its not exactly the same, but you might get some ideas from it. Our exam was to present our topic and I went over my time limit, but it was because I kept getting interrupted...lol. Out of all the highly debatable topics, mine...car seat safety...ended up being the most debated. It was insane...

leighi123 · Apr 20, 2011

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I ended up going with a the persuasion that "kids should stay at each stage of carseat as long as possible" and keeping it pretty general. People seemed to respond well to it and one of the girls that works at a daycare asked for my info to pass on to the director.

I think I convinced people about ERF when I mentioned "internal decapitation", got a lot of

from that one.

And I ended up with an A+ for my score!

One (group) speech left to go and I'm done with this class, next on is on vaccinations and I ended up as the group leader because it was my idea, I am SO not the leader type but I think it will be fine!

Persuasive speech on carseats? (for my speech class)

leighi123

Active member

J-max

CPST Instructor

leighi123

Active member

mamakc

Active member

leighi123

Active member

VoodooChile

New member

Mom2FiveGirls

Active member

leighi123

Active member

Car-Seat.Org Facebook Group

Sponsors

Forum statistics