As parents, we want our children to grow up happy, healthy, and capable, and for all of these, we can say that one critical aspect of a child’s development is their social skills. Social skills development is crucial as it can help shape their attitudes and perspectives towards both themselves and life. And easing them into the big world out there, helping them with social cues of life is our responsibility as parents to provide them an easier path. Let’s explore the ways of guiding our little ones into our world, without forcing them, step by step:
Importance of Social Development in Children
As caretakers, it is important to be aware of how much value is in social development, before getting started in leading them. Social skills play a vital role in a child’s overall development and can impact both their personal circle as suggested, and their success and future studies and work. Many parents start to see changes in their children’s approach to life as they begin to walk, and from that, they keep hitting milestones. These are important as they prepare your little one for managing personal feelings, understanding others, and interacting with the world in a respectful and acceptable way.
The aftereffects might not be visible to you at first, but not easing your child into social environments when it is needed might affect them in their future environments, and lead to a chain of problems regarding their social skills later on in their life, which can negatively affect many areas of life just like helping them leads to positive outcomes. As a responsible parent, being mindful of your kid’s social development is just as important as being careful about their physical condition for their future.
Types of Social Play That Help Your Kid’s Social Development
- Onlooker plays: Toddlers start by watching other children play, but they are unable to participate socially at first. However, when they are alone, they are very alert to their own activities and they may start by imitating the actions that they have seen other children do. You start seeing the sparks of social growth in them.
- Parallel play: Two-year-olds play alongside other children and they may start to interact with them. However, as this is just the beginning for them, their attempts and interactions stay limited. Give-and-take and cooperation are not much but happen. They may start to grab the toys of other children and learn valuable social skills in the process. Toys are always an important part of children’s development, guiding them through life as a companion, but at this stage, we see that they start to gain even more importance.
- Associative play: At this state, there may be cooperation and shared materials, but we do not see any common goal between them and other children. However, it is also seen that they start to form the foundations of cooperative play and gradually with your help, they learn to cooperate step by step.
- Cooperative play: Later on, around their fourth year, children start to interact and work together to solve problems. With this, they identify their needs, start to consider the needs of other people, learn to share and cooperate, and slowly build friendships.
If you want further information on this issue, we have a Play & Toys guide just for you! Please refer to it to guide your child better through their social life, and see more toys and tools which can help you with it.
How Can I Help My Child Get Social?
- Join a toddler group, where your children can see other children having fun in an educating and entertaining (edu-tating!) environment.
- You can gradually introduce toddlers to their peers, but while doing so, do not force them to get involved until they feel ready.
- When your toddler is trying to socialise but is unable to cope, ensure that they can always take breaks, and familiar objects and your comfort are readily available.
- Encourage your children to start by making just one friend. Gradually increasing the amount of people and interactions around them helps them build confidence in the social setting.
- Keep organised playtime with other children short, which helps them get used to the activity.
- Build self-esteem and confidence by praising their efforts to play and interact with other children, which will encourage them for more.
- Exchange contact information with other parents to create opportunities to get toddlers together, so that they can bond over shared activities.
- Do not force your child to take part in social activities if they do not feel ready, or simply do not want to do so on that day. Be patient with them as this is a totally new journey and keep in mind that they are still trying to get used to our world and its ways.
