Making friends- How to help your little ones take the first steps
Does your little one fail to make friends easily? As a parent, you can take a few steps towards helping him/her out in this regard. Of course, a good way is to enroll your kid into fun kids activity programs where they can start building bonds with peers and this includes online hobby classes at platforms like Yellow Class. Agreed, making friends is something that is very personal to say the least. However, building solid friendships is largely dependent upon the emotional abilities, social skills and intrinsic temperament of a child. Parents, however, can play a vital role in this regard. Many children have issues in making new friends owing to shyness or social anxiety. If parents can show these children how to respond to friendly gestures and offer them safer and easier opportunities for interacting with others, then children may be empowered towards confidently building social connections.
Some children often fail to make friends since they do not have ample control over their impulses or behavior which often antagonizes other people. These children will find it simpler to make new friends if parents help them develop skills pertaining to self regulation. Here are some tips that you should keep in mind.
- Show respect and warmth- Do not try and control your little one through punishments, threats of action or emotionally blackmailing them. It may not instantly be relevant to the ability of your child to make new friends although the way parents treat their own children will naturally affect their social behavioral codes and emotional growth. This may also impact peer to peer relationships. Any attempt to manipulate children through guilt or shaming or even withdrawing affection will naturally set up kids for building friendships of poorer quality. Treating children with respect and warmth will naturally teach them how to treat others with the same warmth and kindness.
- Questioning- Ask questions to your child and encourage him/her to talk about himself/herself. Share with your kids the favorite things that people like to talk about. Brainstorm about questions that people usually like answering which will help children make new friends. Role play discussions and chats, taking turns. Have children practice on others at school and then report back on how it all went.
- Sharing- Talk to children about how they can share things about themselves including hobbies, their interests and other aspects. Brainstorm on ways to share information without sounding pompous or arrogant. Talk about the word choices and the voice tone. Role play discussions by asking questions and having children share information about themselves.
- Inviting- Children have to be taught how to invite people into various activities and occasions. Brainstorm about various invitations that children may extend towards other peers. Role play casual invitations which are friendly but not excessively formal. Include pointers on responding properly when someone turns down an invitation.
These tips will greatly help your children in taking the first step towards making new friends.
