From empathising with others’ feelings and needs to winning and losing games gracefully, Penny Tassoni provides some top tips for encouraging social skills in young children

Social skills are the conventions and actions that children need to learn in order to make and keep friends, but also to flourish as they move from home into other social situations. Children who have strong social skills often have an easier journey through childhood before going out into the wider world.

FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Here are five things that all parents need to know about supporting their children’s social skills:

1. Moving from ‘me’ to ‘us’

Many aspects of social skills are linked to how easily a child can think about what others might think, feel and need. The ability to think about others as well as oneself takes time to develop in young children, and skills such as not expecting others to immediately meet and prioritise your needs if they are already busy are very difficult. Many social skills are linked to other areas of development including cognition, language and emotional development.

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