Helping Your Child Make Friends

Which Social Skills does your child need in order for them to make friends?

Basic Social skills do not come naturally for many children and as they get older, they might catch up on the academic work, and struggle with the social interaction.

This is the case for many children who attend our social skills group in Meath.

Social skills by their nature are difficult to teach - especially to children who appear to have little motivation to interact with peers (unless they want something....) - so what can you do?

Consider these questions:

Does your child understand what 'friends' are?

Do they know what does 'Hello' means? and we say it?

Can they answer 'What's your name?'

The answer to these questions will give you a place to start.

In our group, we begin with basic 1-word social skills and build from there. You can do th same at home.

Tips to teach basic communication skills:

1) Use 'Hello' and 'Hello (name)' when you meet people. Encourage your child to look at, say or sign 'hello' to someone at least once every day.

2) See if they can remember something about their friend or friends - such as their names, what they are wearing, what they played with at school etc.

3) Practice answering 'what's your name?' - use their name as a prompt with the answer.

These basic questions are the ones many people will be asking your child out and about, or at school. If they can understand everyday questions and reply, it will help build your child's social confidence. When they can make basic social interactions, further attempts will follow.

All of these questions are covered in our social skills game 'Hello' which is designed to teach these skills - take a look at: http://www.hometrain.ie/ 'Hello', free social skills info and printables.

Claire.