Friendships are an important part of the school experience.

Friendships are an important part of the school experience. Friends offer kids a respite from adult guided or solitary activities. They provide time to hang out and have fun with others who are going through similar life experiences, and to connect on a level that only peers can fulfill. However, some children need support with making and keeping friends. Parents, here’s how you can help your child foster friendships at school:

• Help Children Make a List of What Friends Like and What They Don’t Like:
  Keep it consistent with the child’s chronological and developmental age level (i.e. taking turns or being supportive).
• Help Children with Conversational Skills:
  Show children how to start and maintain conversations; stay on topic; keep conversations short enough to include others; and encourage them to take an interest in others.
• Help Children Find a Mutual Interest:
  Shared interests bond children together.
• Help Children Manage Their Emotions:
  Children who learn to verbalize their feelings, and calmly problem-solve frustrations, will have a more positive reaction from peers.
• Involve the Teacher in Promoting Good Peer Matches:
  Which can be encouraged at school and fostered through get-togethers outside of school.
• Seek out Professional Expertise with Social Skills:
  Social skill groups, books, apps, and games can help children learn social skills at diverse levels of understanding.

Related: From Social Skills to Social Thinking

Social Skills Support Should be tailored to the Specific Needs of Each Child.

Social Skills is a vast area of learning with rules that change based on contexts. There are many sub-categories which can be broken down further into smaller components. Children will have strengths in some areas and need assistance in others. Knowing the areas in which a child needs support will allow for targeted skill development. The skills they build now are the ones they will use over their lifetime.

SUBSCRIBE!
Sign up NOW to receive our “31 Back-to-School Tips for a Successful School Year” delivered right to your inbox.

Helpful Articles

• Five Ways to Cultivate Friendships
• Making Friends: A Skill That Needs to Be Practiced!
• 5 Tips to Help Your Child with Special Needs Make Friends
• From Social Skills to Social Thinking
• Mate Crime Spotting the Signs of Fake Friendship
• Six Ways to Foster Friendships at School {Tip 7 of 31}
• Let’s Talk: Peer Buddy Program
• Ask Angie ASL – Tips for Meeting New Friends Who Use Sign Language
• Tips for Inclusion and Friendship
• My Friendship Bracelet Maker
• Friends of Brian: Achieving Quality of Life Through GAP
• More Than Friends: Sammy Callari and Parker Seward
• Digital Safety: An Ongoing Conversation
• Summer Internet Surfing Keeping Kids Safe Online