While we would say that the essential skills to teach your children are emotional self-regulation abilities, it is undeniable that we must also educate our children in social skills. But how can you teach social skills to children who have difficulty understanding social rules? And what can you do at home to assist in teaching these skills? How do you help them in developing their social skills?
So, to assist in educating your child’s social skills, you may do a variety of things, which we can summarize neatly as explain, be patient, practice, model, prompt, and praise. Now, let see how to teach them.
How to teach social skills at home or school?
Social skills do not develop overnight in children, but summer is an excellent time to build on them. If you’re lucky, you’ll enjoy a few tranquil minutes during summer watching your children or classmates play blissfully. When your child is having social difficulties, it’s a good idea to stay close enough to break up any significant disputes while still giving them time to work things out independently. If you must intervene, try to ask many questions and shift the weight of problem resolution back to the youngster. They won’t learn anything if we jump in and save them from any potential confrontation.
Explain social interactions
Social interaction is defined as a social transaction between two or more people. Because these interactions represent the foundation of social organization, they are an essential object of fundamental social inquiry and study. Social interaction can be examined in two (days), three (triads), or bigger.
Societal interactions are the foundation of social institutions and cultures. People build the norms, institutions, and systems they desire to exist by interacting with one another. In addition, symbols are employed to transmit a society’s expectations to individuals who are new to it, whether they be youngsters or outsiders. Through this broad schema of social development, one can understand how social contact is at the heart of it all.
Be patient
Even adults struggle with patience; thus, it is crucial to begin teaching this critical social skill early on and foster tolerance in various scenarios.
Among the activities for practising patience are:
- Assist children in avoiding the need for rapid fulfilment (start slowly)
- Provide children with techniques to help them be patient (deep breathing, count to 10, etc.)
- When the youngster is waiting, use a timer or a visual.
- Experiment with taking turns.
- Exemplify patient behaviours
Practice, practice, practice
Have you ever heard the saying, “Practice makes a man perfect?” Social skills are a type of skill that will vanish if they are not practised. For example, in our country, to express our respect, we took the blessing of our elders, and every time we met them, we asked for their blessing. This happened because of the remainder your parents gave every time you met an elder. This is how practising a social skill can make you perfect.
Use modelling and be a good role model yourself
You may unwittingly imitate unhealthy behaviours for your children at times. Consider the following possibilities.
A woman informs the cashier at a restaurant that her 12-year-old kid is only 11 to receive a discount at the buffet. But, unfortunately, her son learns that it’s okay to lie from time to time to acquire what he wants.
A father spends his nights watching television but advises his 14-year-old daughter to read more.
Parents teach their children to treat everyone with dignity. Nonetheless, they frequently make disparaging remarks about others behind their backs.
A divorced couple constantly disagrees about custody and visitation but expects their children to get along.
It’s difficult to model acceptable conduct for your children all of the time, and no one expects you to be flawless. However, it would help to model the norms and behaviours you want your children to emulate.
Every day, you have the opportunity to live a life worth imitating. Consider what you want your children to learn from you and strive to mirror it in your own life.
Prompt, as needed.
It’s easy to overlook all of the processes necessary, or even the underlying rules of a social scenario, especially when you’re just starting. As a result, be sure to prompt your child as needed to help them succeed when practising their social skills.
Verbal prompting (e.g., “You appear to be interested in playing with that toy. You can ask your friend, ‘May I please take a turn with that toy?’ and perhaps your friend will allow you to try it out.”
Using a visual cue or help (e.g., pointing to a graphic cue card or a prewritten script to guide your child to know what comes next)
Provide feedback, encouragement, and praise
Make sure to compliment your youngster on their efforts! And encourage them to try out their new abilities and praise them for attempting, even if anxiety or sensory demands make it more difficult. Provide input on what went well, what may be better, and so forth.
Your support and appreciation will inspire them to keep learning, while your critique will provide them with the skills they need to be more successful in the future.
Role-play social situations
To begin the role-play, have students call “Action.” Keep the problem, the proposed solution, and the SEL learning aims in mind while watching the role-play. Keep a close eye on the performers’ bodies and yell “Freeze” when they exhibit heightened physical expressiveness. This will result in a visual tableau of the activity and a visual learning moment. Use this tableau to help you ask higher-order thinking questions.
Conclusion
These skills may look accessible to you, but it is tough to teach, and it requires a lot of time and patience to teach all these skills to your kid. If You don’t have time to teach all these skills to your child, InventtEd offers a psychological and personality development service at a cost-effective price that can help your child grow. To know more, get in touch with us!
