Social skills are vitally important to youe child's well being, both now during childhood and later on in his or her adult life.
1. A MORAL COMPASS
Children have to know the difference between right and wrong in order to prosper socially. What are the values that you want to instill in your child? They are probably honesty, integrity, kindness, and other noble traits of that nature. Raise your child to be well-mannered and polite. For example, if your child receives a gift, he or she should know to say thank-you. If someone sneezes, your child should know to say, "Bless you." You may think that these social customs are inherent, but in reality, bad manners are so prevalent nowadays that it is very necessary for parents to make a concerted effort to teach their children to exercise good manners and politeness in social situations.
2. SELF-RESPECT
It is vitally important that you teach your child at an early age to have self-love and pride. Confidence is an important tool for thriving socially. The language that you use with your child will greatly influence his or her confidence level. Make sure that you never label your child as bad, stupid, or anything else blatantly negative. When your child acts up, you should only scold your child for that specific behavior. When your child achieves something, such as doing well on a school project or test or scoring a goal at the soccer game, commend him or her with compliments and praise.
3. COMPASSION
Learning to be a compassionate individual is crucial to your child's social development. Socialization hinges on the ability to relate to others in an effective way. The first step in teaching your child to be compassionate is showing your child the value of sharing. Explain that relationships are give and take.
4. COMMUNICATION SKILLS
In order for you child to interact with his peers and other members of society, you have to teach him to develop effective communication skills. Encourage strong speaking skills. If your child wants something, he or she should know how to communicate that in a coherent and understandable way.
5. A SENSE OF HUMOR
Teach your child to incorporate laughter and levity into his or her life - a sense of humor is important to social development. Tell jokes and be silly at home with your child. Seriousness is overrated and often overused. Your child will learn to become a humorous individual if they see that type of behavior modeled at home.
6. POSITIVE ROLE MODELS
Parents have to be the foremost positive role models in their child's life. If you curse like a truck driver in front of your kids, how can you get mad at them for mirroring your behavior? You have to censor yourself so that you are always using language that is age-appropriate. Don't fight with your spouse in front of your children either. Yelling shouldn't be commonplace behavior in your life, and if it is, your child will learn that yelling is the best way to communicate (and it definitely isn't).
7. PLAYTIME
As the popular proverb goes, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Don't forget to let your child enjoy childhood and playtime. Homework is important, but it is equally if not more important for your child to have some downtime just enjoying life. Teaching your child that playtime is important will help him or her to prioritize life, putting happiness first.
8. PEER EXPOSURE
Clearly, unless you expose your child to social settings with children in his or her peer group, your child's social development will be impeded. Make sure that your child interacts with other children on a regular basis, by the age of two years old at the latest. The earlier your child begins forming relationships with peers, the easier it will be for him or her to build lasting friendships throughout life.
9. CHORES
In order to instill a sense of personal responsibility in your child, you should come up with some chores for him or her to do. Your child has to get the message that hard work is rewarded. Not only is it rewarded with such things as an allowance, but it is also rewarding because it helps the family and makes you proud. When it comes to chores, it isn't important that you assign tons of tasks; the important thing is that your child learns to be accountable for the little that you do ask of him or her.
10. CONSEQUENCES
Punishing your child is critical to his or her social development because he or she needs to understand that there are consequences to bad choices and bad behaviors. If your child learns that he can talk you out of punishing him, then he will learn to become manipulative. You have to stick to your guns. Choose your battles, and when you choose one, don't back down. Your child has to learn that every action has a reaction, and in order to develop strong social skills, you have to appropriately punish bad behavior.
