Social skills allow us to build relationships, communicate with others, make the right decisions and behave correctly. This makes social skills crucial for your child’s development.

Children with good social skills will not only find it easier to make friends, but these skills will also support your child’s happiness and future success.

Some children are naturally very sociable, while others need a helping hand in order to develop these invaluable skills. To help your child increase their social skills, here is some great advice from a leading preparatory school in West London…

Interaction

Spend plenty of time each day interacting with your child. Encourage them to ask questions and make time to play with them.

Demonstrate good social skills and manners for your child to replicate.

Teach your children to be kind to others and point out unkind behaviour in movies or in books. Explain why it is important to take turns and share with other children and teach your child to say sorry if they make a mistake.

Eye contact

Whenever your child is speaking to you, try to make eye contact with them. This can be difficult for busy parents; however, it can really help the social development of your child.

If your child seems to lack this skill it can be helpful to practice. Let your child see how it feels to hold a conversation without eye contact.

Ask your child to tell you about their day while you look around the room. Then, try again with eye contact. Which did they prefer and how did it make them feel?

Empathy

Helping your child to develop their social skills isn't simply to teach them to follow rules and remember their manners, but to inspire them to think for themselves and understand feelings.

This should include their own feelings and the feelings of others. By discussing feelings and emotions with your child you can teach them to have empathy for others and respect for other

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.

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