The importance of social skills in children
Every day families come to the studio worried because their child does not make friends, does not know how to deal with certain situations that arise at school or is not able to control his or her impulsiveness. All these aspects have to do with social skills receptive language. We do not realize it, but social skills are present in our daily lives and we use them constantly, even though we do not give them the importance they have.
We use them when we listen to a friend who is worried, when we try to solve a problem that has arisen, when we get angry with someone we love… The big question is… if they are so necessary… why doesn’t anyone teach us how to use them?
In the end, social skills are those socially accepted behaviors that allow us to relate to our environment .
For this reason, at Help You we try to convey the value and importance of training and working with them in all contexts, so that they can function in the world around them and are able to manage difficult situations.
Furthermore, we should not make the mistake of thinking that they are not necessary at all stages, since we can talk about social skills from childhood to adulthood.
In fact, in the childhood stage, is when we begin to understand the first social norms, such as respecting speaking turns, saying hello when you arrive at a place or saying goodbye when you leave.
Recommendations to work on social skills in children
That is why today we bring you this article, in which we are going to offer you five tips to work on social skills with your child on a daily basis:
Make up games about situations
We can play a family game where we propose different situations that may arise in your daily life for which you have to present a solution. This way we will work on conflict resolution, decision making, impulsiveness…
One of the benefits of this game, in addition to reinforcing family unity and spending time together, is that when all family members participate, we can offer our children different points of view and different ways of acting towards the same problem or situation.
This way when a similar situation arises in the future, you will have resources to deal with it.
be an example
It is clear that if we want our child to train certain social skills, such as empathy, we have to be their reference figure.
Therefore, if we want our child to be empathetic with their environment and with the people around them, we must act with the same empathy towards them and towards others. In the end, we learn by imitation and this is one of the most important factors.
Reinforces positive behaviors
If our child has acted in a way that we consider to be positive for him/her, we must reinforce that behavior to increase the likelihood that it will occur again in the future. For example, if our son/daughter has had a problem at school and has known how to manage and resolve it appropriately on his/her own, we will reinforce this behavior.
If, on the other hand, he has not been capable, we will never punish what happened, since he has surely acted that way because he has no more resources. What we must do in this case is to support him and offer him other forms of response and action in this situation.
Sign up for extracurricular or sports activities
Enrolling our children in different activities is very positive since they will interact with other children their age who may be more or less similar to them.
This will generate a series of situations that they will have to face and that will allow them to train skills such as empathy, assertiveness, conflict resolution…
Pay attention to your self-esteem
It is necessary to pay attention to your self-esteem , since good self-esteem will help us have better and healthier relationships with our environment. Therefore, we must teach them the importance of loving themselves and believing in those things they are capable of doing.
Workshops to work social skills in children
As we have been telling you throughout this article, social skills are essential to work on at home and at Ayudarte I study psychology we want to improve children’s social skills by creating different workshops for this, some for families and educators and others for children. ace:
Emotions and social skills workshop for children from 6 to 12 years old
Goleman says “The ability to express one’s feelings is a fundamental social skill,” so when we talk about social skills, it is essential to also talk about emotions.
For this reason, from the studio we have developed some in-person workshops for children that take place during the winter season . If you want more information, do not hesitate to consult our catalog with all the information on prices, duration, etc.
However, for those who follow us outside, we want to bring that same workshop online soon for children so that you can purchase them in our online store.
Workshop to work on emotions and develop social skills at home and in the classroom
It is the first online workshop that talks about different areas that are closely related to each other: early stimulation, language, emotions, self-esteem, social skills and family.
All these areas are very interconnected with each other and that is why we want you to know the resources we use in the study: books, games, activities… for all ages: babies, primary school, childhood and adolescence.
Each age will have its advice, its resources and you yourself will find new ideas to create your own based on our recommendations.
It is aimed both at families who want to improve or learn more about these areas and for teachers and educators who are interested in learning more about a child’s development.
It is a practical course that you will take at your own pace. You can purchase it in our online store and ask us any questions you have, if any problem arises.
The workshop is made up of:
6 videos
1 e-book
3 games and 5 activities that we have designed for the workshop,
15 book recommendations
13 game recommendations
Many recommendations and aspects to work on in each area.
Because working on emotions is an investment so that your child feels good about himself and the other people around him.