As parents, you might want your children to have a posse of buddies right from the time he or she starts going to a play school in Ahmedabad. While some children are very extrovert from a tender age, others may take their own sweet time to open up. Adults should not expect the little ones to be social butterflies right off the bat. Give children time to be themselves, to understand and absorb their social surroundings first.
Even after taking pre-primary school admission, you may notice that your child is not making any friends- don’t lose your sleep over it. They eventually will make lots of friends. However, you can closely monitor your children and analyse their developmental milestones. Below are some steps that can be taken to introduce the tinytots to a social life:
No Competitive Games
While helping your child to make new friends, avoid arranging for competitive games. Unnecessary competition or comparison may not work well for growing toddlers. Instead try and expose them to games that encourage team spirit and make them work towards a common goal. Such games are ideal to teach children about the benefits of working together and the importance of sharing and in the process, it will be easy for them to make friends.
Stay Involved
Taking admission in one of the best nursery schools in Ahmedabad will not take care of your child’s social skills automatically. If your tot is the shy kind, you stay involved. Most of the activities conducted in playgroup (Early Child Care) are aimed towards honing the social skills of a child. Talk to your child about the various activities that are done in school. Help your child talk fondly of the times spent in the playgroup (Early Child Care) and ask your child the names of the other children in the class.
Teach Politeness and Empathy
A lot of times children end up speaking rudely or even start hitting others. Find out if your child is exhibiting such traits or is subjected to bullying. In either case, the child needs to be coached appropriately. Toddlers can be very sensitive, so parents and teachers need to understand the root cause of their behaviour and guide them accordingly. Children need to be taught about the importance of talking politely with everyone- friends and elders alike, feelings of empathy need to be developed as such traits enhance the social competence in children.
When to Stay Away
Pre-schoolers tend to have a love-hate relationship with their immediate peers. One moment they could be hugging and another moment, they may not be ready to speak to each other. In such scenarios, elders should be completely nonchalant and let the children sort it among themselves. When parents tend to hover around children, trying to fix things, they are may be at the risk of robbing children of developing social skills on their own.
Tell Tales
Talk to your child often and make him realise the value of listening to others. This is a necessary trait required in friendship. Also, stories about friendship will help children in understanding the value of friendship and why one always needs to be there for their friends. Good friends are after all our real assets in life.
While it is important to encourage children to make friends, at the same time, it is essential to teach them that it’s ok to feel lonely at times and that they will continue to make new friends at different stages in life.
Parents should never place their high social expectations on children, just let them be and be their guide, knowing fully well that they are going to be alright.
