5 Ways to Encourage Your Child to Make Friends in School

Forging friendships is a cornerstone of growing up — it teaches us valuable skills necessary to navigate life.  As your child enters school-going age, their world broadens. Their classmates and teachers become new relationships. Encouraging children to make friends in school is important; it bolsters their confidence and boosts their self-awareness.

Forming friendships can help your child feel like they belong. Children acquire many social cues and skills vital for emotional and cognitive development when they play and learn together. They also learn to resolve conflicts, know when their friends are sad and comfort them and in return, they will feel cared for by their friends.

Parents play a pivotal role in this journey of making friends. This article shares five ways parents can encourage their children to develop a friendship.

1.   Guide Your Child Through Crucial Conversation Skills

Teach your children how to start a conversation. For instance, when they first meet a new friend, they can smile, introduce their names, ask for their friend’s names, follow up with a question like “how old are you?”, listen and respond appropriately. Parents can role-play and act as a new friend to get children familiar with this process.

Parents could also practice nonverbal cues with their children. Some of which include making eye contact with people, taking turns to speak, and always using a respectful tone of voice. Encourage your child to try speaking again if they talk in a disrespectful tone or unclear manner.

Storytelling with your child is another good way to encourage children to communicate. For instance, parents can get their children to share a moment from their day when they experienced strong emotions. That way, children would find it easier to elaborate. For instance, parents can ask their children: why do you think we should care for animals? Why do you love chocolates?

2.   Teaching Children How to Manage Their Feelings

Teaching children how to handle their emotions is very important. The stronger a child’s regulation skills are the more likely children are to develop positive peer relationships.

Researchers observed how the mother of 5-year-olds coped with their children’s negative emotions in a study. It was found that children were more likely to develop strong self-regulation skills if they had grown up with a parent who talked to them, both empathetically and constructively. Parents should model to their children how to cope with bad moods and deal with difficult situations.

In contrast, parents who reacted dismissively, ‘You’re just being silly!’ or suggested a punishment, ‘Go to your room’, negatively impacted their child, and as a result their children become weak at self-regulating. In difficult situations, these children do not know how to react or solve their own problems.

3.   Organise Play Dates for Your Child

Take your child to the playground every evening and create opportunities to meet other children.

Try not to get involved when they are interacting and getting to know one another. Give your child and his friend time and space to learn how to get along with one another. During this time, parents can converse with their friend’s parents and build relationships.

However, every child has different needs when it comes to social interaction. Some children become friends with a bit of encouragement, but not all children can naturally socialise; hence, parents can step in to keep the interaction going.

Look out for playground equipment that can promote cooperative play between two or more kids. For instance, give them ideas like playing on seesaw swings or building a sandcastle. Parents could also organise non-competitive games such as rope jumping, ball games or treasure hunts to encourage your child and a group of children to play together.

4.   Encourage friendships to Develop Outside the Classroom

Extra-curricular activities like sports, arts, dance — are great ways for children to strengthen relationships outside the classroom. Additionally, community events and youth groups offer an opportunity to broaden their social networks. Here, like-minded individuals find common ground because they share the same interests. There is a strong sense of belonging here; thus, it would be easier for your child to mingle with this group of people and make friends.

Some children are anxious about meeting new people, and they struggle with the idea of making friends. Lorna Whiston Schools offers hands-on lessons and enrichment programmes for children. They are conducted in groups, where your child will meet other friends, bond through activities, and have fun together. As time goes by, your child will become familiar with collaborating with peers as they learn.

5.   Set Your Child at Ease

Don’t compare your child to those who may be more sociable. This would give your child unnecessary stress and form a negative connotation to making friends. Remember that every child is unique.

Give your child the time and space to interact with their friends. If they are starting a new class, get there early to get them used to the place. Don’t tell your child what they should do; let your child decide the group of people they want to make friends with.

Support your child’s friendships by getting to know their friends. Parents could even invite their child’s friends and parents over to their homes and get to know one another better.

When children are comfortable in their environment and have no parent’s expectations to meet, it would set their minds at ease, making it easier for them to make friends.

Conclusion:

As the familiar saying goes, ‘A friend in need is a friend indeed.’ Making friends is an important aspect of your child’s life; it develops your child emotionally and morally.

Generally, children have better attitudes about school and learning when they have their friends present. At Lorna Whiston Schools, we believe in helping your child to build meaningful friendships that would enhance their learning experience.