In order for young children to establish a positive social life, a parent’s help is crucial. Parents can assist their child develop social skills so that friendships are more likely to emerge, even though it is important for young children to have plenty of time and space to play freely with their peers. Here are five suggestions to help your preschooler to make friends:
Model Friendship For Your Preschooler
Those little ears and eyes never stop listening and seeing. Kids imitate the behaviors they see. Engage in active listening, show patience and decency in your conversations, and be as kind as you can. Even if you believe your kids aren’t paying attention, refrain from talking about people negatively or calling them names.
Try Emotion-Coaching
With your preschooler, practice reflecting emotions empathically. According to research, when parents employ emotion-coaching techniques, their children are better able to control their own emotions, which promotes consistent conduct that fosters friendships. In his book “Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child,” Dr. John Gottman instructs parents on how to be an emotional coach.
Practice With Stuffed Animals Or Puppets
Using stuffed animals or puppets to create pretend social situations is one of the best ways to teach preschoolers social skills. Kids can bring you a puppet, put another puppet on their own hand, and request something through the puppet. Then they would express themselves through action. Play is a powerful tool that can be used when learning. In fact, this is why we have students use plushie patients in our Little Veterinarian School program. Kids will practice their skills on the plushies, which makes learning about complex subjects in medicine fun!
Schedule For One-On-One Play Dates
When in a group, some kids experience overwhelming feelings. If this is your child, you might want to plan some initial structured activities when setting up one-on-one playtime to encourage interaction. This helps break up any hesitations or fears of interacting with what may be a new friend.
Respect Their Friendships
As we all know, relationships between two people can falter at times. Young kids experience this too! Conflict can arise between personalities, energies, and interests. Don’t push the friendship if it seems after a few tries that it isn’t going to take off because this does not help your preschooler make friends.
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