Social skills are important for children as they help in building interpersonal relationships and social circles. A few of these include talking effectively, making friends, interacting, bonding, etc. Kids can either come by these skills very easily or find them challenging. Parents can enhance the social skills of their children in many ways.
5 Ways to Boost Social Skills Of a Child
Following Instructions
The easiest social skill that a child can learn is by following instructions. Before teaching this method, parents or teachers should remember that mistakes are common, multiple directions are challenging, and phrasing questions is unhelpful. It means the person should tell about the task with precision and without the probability of ignoring or dismissal.
Appreciating children after completing the task would prove useful as it develops encouragement. Moreover, following instructions will help a child become a good student at school and avoid misbehavior.
Don’t Refrain from Eye-Contact
Eye contact is a sign of confidence while speaking to a person. Some kids might know but shy away because they refrain from it. Parents can teach eye contact to their children in many ways. The easiest way is by playing games like staring contests.
Optionally, you can ask them to recite stories while looking at you or something they admire in their rooms. The child would have confidence while interacting, and it would become visible through facial expressions and words.
Sharing and Cooperating
You can teach sharing and cooperating to children even when they are toddlers by giving directions. A few activities may prove helpful in developing these skills. These include team games, obstacle course/relay race, role-playing, etc.
Sharing and cooperating helps develop respect, a good environment, make friend circles, enhance participation, boost helpfulness, etc. Parents between the age of three and six should focus on developing these two skills as children incorporate them into their lives after that.
Listening
One of the crucial communication components is listening. It means to understand the views of another person. Children with good listening skills can absorb teacher instructions at schools and have a better career.
Active listening makes sure that the child is absorbing the information of another child and responding accordingly. After completing high school, it even helps a child during the listening and speaking test sections of a competitive exam IELTS or TOEFL.
Become a Role Model
Children often mimic the activities of elders in their homes. They learn new words, expressions, body language, etc., from parents or caretakers. Additionally, they develop empathy, sympathy, and other emotions. Therefore, parents should make sure that their children are in a safe environment.
Moreover, the former should become role models by showcasing forethought and conscious efforts. Parents should also spend sufficient time with their children every day to develop a child’s communication, interpersonal, body language, and other social skills.
Joining an online course can also assist in these areas because of the experienced tutors. Additionally, it can develop skills like empathy, straying away from personal space, emotion regulation, etc.
One must enroll for spoken english for kids to enhance the social skills in a child.