Helping Your Child with their Social Skills

Your child’s social experiences will play a key role in their life, helping them mature on both a personal level and in terms of their education. With that in mind, you should introduce your child to socialisation with other children and adults as early as possible. Parents can help their children to develop healthy social skills with the following advice from an independent day school near Oxford. 

Start by bearing in mind that children learn how to behave by observing their parents and other influential people around them. With that said, the easiest way to teach your child suitable social skills is to demonstrate them yourself. If you are rude and obnoxious, your child will think this is acceptable and behave in the same way. Alternatively, if you are polite and respectful, your child will be too. 

Talk to your child about the different elements of a conversation. Listening is just as important as talking and your child needs to know that it’s rude to interrupt. When playing with other children, your child needs to know that they should share their toys, be kind and polite, and never tease or bully. You should also explore different emotions with your child and suggest certain ways to respond if they notice someone is sad or angry.

Starting a conversation with someone, especially a stranger, can be tough, so it’s worth giving your child some tips. For instance, perhaps they can pay the person a compliment by saying “I like your hair/shoes/t-shirt” or maybe even ask them a question like “where did you get your shoes from?”. Encourage you child to join extra-curricular activities so that they become more familiar with meeting new people and forming friendships. You should also arrange lots of playdates whilst they’re young so that they are comfortable with socialisation. 

Thanks for reading xxx