Being a good friend takes practice. Help your child learn the social skills they’ll need with three simple strategies.
What You Need to Know
Children need help learning the social skills needed to make and keep friends. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends these simple strategies to help your child learn about friendship.
- Use puppets to practice the social skills they’ll need.
- Accent the positive. Teach them how to communicate appropriately.
- Invite friends over. Plan ahead so you and your child are ready.
How You Can Help
Your role is to teach and model appropriate social skills so your child learns how to play with his/her friends. You can do this in fun and simple ways.
- Use puppets to help your child express his/her feelings. Ask questions like, “How did that make you feel?” or “What are you afraid might happen?”
- Make it part of your dinner table discussion. Present conflicts that may arise during play and have the whole family think of ways to handle them.
- Plan for when friends come over. Sit down with your child and ask questions like, “Where is the best place to play?” “Should we have something to eat or drink?” and “Who would you like to invite?”
For more on this topic, see the complete article:
http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Be_Good_Friend/
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