Friends are an important part of the school experience.
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Friends 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 [2]:
Shared interests bond children together. - Help Children Manage Their Emotions [3]:
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 [4]:
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 [5]
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.
[6]If you know of someone who might benefit from this tip, please share.
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Helpful Articles
- Five Ways to Cultivate Friendships [8]
- Making Friends: A Skill That Needs to Be Practiced! [9]
- 5 Tips to Help Your Child with Special Needs Make Friends [10]
- From Social Skills to Social Thinking [5]
- Mate Crime Spotting the Signs of Fake Friendship [11]
- Six Ways to Foster Friendships at School {Tip 7 of 31} [12]
- Let’s Talk: Peer Buddy Program [4]
- Ask Angie ASL – Tips for Meeting New Friends Who Use Sign Language [13]
- Tips for Inclusion and Friendship [14]
- My Friendship Bracelet Maker [15]
- Friends of Brian: Achieving Quality of Life Through GAP [16]
- More Than Friends: Sammy Callari and Parker Seward [17]
- Digital Safety: An Ongoing Conversation [18]
- Summer Internet Surfing Keeping Kids Safe Online [19]