How to Build a Young Child's Social Skills
- 1). Model appropriate behaviors that you want to see a child use. When your child sees you use social skills appropriately, she learns to notice social cues on how to act.
- 2). Encourage sharing and taking turns. This is the foundation to almost all preschool relationships. Children who experience problems relating to other children often have not learned to share or take turns.
- 3). Practice the social skills with your child through interaction. It's the best way to let a child know what your expectations are. For instance, not interrupting people when they're talking is a good skill to practice ahead of time.
- 4). Recognize when your child uses new social skills during the day. A "good job" goes a long way, and maybe you can provide an additional reward of playing a game or extra reading time.
- 5). Provide opportunities for your child to play with other children from an early age-park, library, play dates. As your child grows older, resist the temptation to butt in so that your child can form his own social strategies of how to behave in peer relationships.
- 6). Teach problem solving as a response to problems with social skills. When your child reports a problem with another child, ask questions about possible reasons for another child's behavior. By understanding why a peer acts a certain way, your child can come up with ways to respond.
