Helping Your Child Develop their Social Skills

At school and in general life children must learn how to interact with others. While they may be perfectly fine talking to you, it is very different to talking to strangers. You might be able to understand them perfectly, but others may not and vice versa. It also takes confidence which you will need to help them develop. In this post we share guidance from a private school in Surrey you can use to help your child in developing these skills.

Have Conversations with Your Child

The first step for children working on their social skills is having regular conversations with their parents as this will help build their initial communication skills and teach them how to act in social situations. Start talking to your child from an early age by telling them what you’re doing and asking them questions, like about what they want to eat etc. As they get older you can have more advanced conversations about what they did at school for example.

Get into Reading

To expand on their communication skills, try reading. Books introduce children to dozens of new words. They will learn their meanings through the context they are used in and asking you questions. As you continue reading together, their dictionary will grow, and they will be able to express themselves clearly and communicate with others.

Emotional Intelligence

Communication skills aren’t the only skills needed to socialise. Children must be able to tell how others around them feel in order to respond appropriately and build meaningful relationships. Therefore, you will need to build their emotional intelligence and help them to understand what different forms of body language mean. This can be done through pointing out examples around you.

Play Dates

To take things to the next level and help your child in talking to those other than you, you should try looking for opportunities where they can meet others their age and make friends. Not only will this help them in developing the confidence to speak to new people, but it will help them in learning other social skills such as sharing and empathy.

These are just a few ways of helping children come out of their shell and developing their social skills. Something to be mindful of is that you’re going at a pace that suits them. Ensure that you’re not pushing them out of their comfort zone too soon and appreciate that children all develop at their own pace.

K Elizabeth xoxox

*Collaborative Post