Important Social Skills and How To Practice Them

While developing social skills is a vital part of any child’s development it can also be complex and confusing to help them to learn and practice them. Does your child struggle with sharing, working with others, or empathizing? Here are some important social skills for your child to learn and tips on how to practice them.

Sharing

Sharing is a vital skill for your child to learn and will come into play in many parts of their lives. Typically children between toddler and kindergarten age have difficulty understanding the concept of sharing. Please encourage your child to share with their friends when playing while also respecting the boundaries of their animals, blankets, or toys of special significance. Try to encourage and not force!

Listening

Active listening is another important skill for a child to develop. Properly absorbing and taking in information will require your child to focus which many struggle to do. Improving this skill will help your child navigate social interactions, understand gestures, answer questions, and more. To practice this skill, when your child is engaging in a social interaction be sure to see if they are really listening and encourage them to ask questions. And when you are engaging with your child ensure you are also practicing active listening so they can learn from your example!

Empathy

Empathy as a social skill is the ability to understand and share feelings. This skill is one that can take a while to develop and will continue to grow more and more as they are put in different situations where it is needed. One of the simplest ways to encourage your child to practice empathy is to show it to them. When they are given grace in situations they are likely to show it to others!

Looking for ways to help your child develop social skills? Allcare Therapy offers Social Pragmatic Language Therapy Groups for just that purpose!