5 Ways to Support Your Child with their Social Skills

As recommended by West Sussex independent schools, social skills in children is a very valuable aspect of learning. There are many approaches to helping a child with their social skills – here are 5 you could try out.

1. Encourage good eye contact

While it sounds like a simple process, your child should learn to make proper eye contact with those that they do talk to. This can be harder for some children in comparison to children that are able to socialise better, but this doesn’t mean they can’t slowly learn to focus their attention on someone’s face. If they are struggling, start smaller by using family members or siblings to communicate with first.

2. Practice role play

Role playing is a good way of communicating with your child together and seeing how they get on. There will be many good opportunities that will allow your child to explore how to best communicate with you, friends and other members of the family. Just let them be comfortable with these opportunities to develop their skills, and keep asking them questions to see how they feel.

3. Don’t push your child too far

Each child is different and will have particular learning approaches. Children may also be introverted or have particular learning needs that can hamper their progress. This doesn’t mean that they will struggle for the rest of their childhood, it just means you have to accommodate different changes. Don’t force your child into uncomfortable situations, either, as that can have lasting impact on their development.

4. Help your child recognise different emotions

Lots of different emotions will come into play when you are socialising and communicating with others. There can be times where children get upset, excited, feel nervous or overwhelmed in particular scenarios. If you help your child learn to overcome these different problems it will help reinforce positive relationships between you and your child. Share your emotions often and talk openly about them – it will help with their understanding.

5. Encourage your child to ask questions

Asking lots of questions helps anyone understand something in a better way. It could be a complicated concept to someone else, so being comfortable with the opportunity to talk openly about different things can help a child’s confidence. Your child is going to have lots of questions about the world and how it works – get them to ask you plenty of them so that they can be continuously chatting. Socialising doesn’t have to be difficult, but using the right approaches can help your child become a lot more accepting of their own unique quirks. Mix up what you teach to your child to help them in the best ways, and see which approaches work the best.

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