There are many activities you can introduce to children that’ll help improve their general social skills. If you want to give your child a helping hand in their behavioral and interactive development we commend you! As one of the best preschool Gainesville provider, our mission at a Child’s Academy is to nurture the children we care for by helping improve their social and cognitive abilities through age-appropriate activities and practices as well as by giving parents useful and effective child care tips. If you can relate with any of the following then you might want to consider presenting your child with more activities for helping build social skills:
- Is your preschool child having a difficult time making friends?
- Have you observed challenges regarding your child getting along with others?
- Have you been looking for ways to help the process of your child’s social development?
We hope to present you with some amazing ideas on how to help build up and bring out your child’s best preschool Gainesville social skills. The following activities are designed to help your preschooler learn to initiate social interactions with other children and from there develop and maintain these interactions into healthy social relationships.
Asking For Turns
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Best Preschool Gainesville Building Social Skills – Teaching the Skill
Your child will have to learn (and sometimes relearn) that if they want something that someone else already has or is playing with he or she needs to politely ask for a turn. Teach your child that they can do this by saying “my turn” or “Can I please have a turn” whichever option is appropriate to their language level.
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Best Preschool Gainesville Building Social Skills – Practicing the Skill
Your Child will learn this skill best like any other – with practice. You can practice this preschool social skills activity by taking turns with your child asking to use a toy. Your child should recognize that they should share the toy when you ask for a turn. Moving further into practice you can also get your child used to waiting a certain amount of time (say 5-10 minutes) between switching turns.
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Best Preschool Gainesville Building Social Skills – Using the Skill
Once you’ve practiced this activity with your child they should be ready to place their new skill into play. Take your child somewhere they’re used to that they can play with other children. Before getting there and upon arriving remind your preschooler that they need to ask politely for turns when they’d like to use something. Stay in close proximity and gently remind your child (as needed) to ask for turns and give turns when asked by other children.
Introductions and Saying Hello
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Best Preschool Gainesville Building Social Skills – Teaching the Skill
Teach your child that upon meeting someone new it’s polite to say hello and give their name. Give your child the phrase “Hi, I’m ______ (his or her name). What’s your name?” If your child isn’t quite speaking in full sentences just yet adjust the phrase to something more simple such as just “Hi” or “I’m _____.”
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Best Preschool Gainesville Building Social Skills – Practicing the Skill
This skill is one of the essentials; fortunately, it’s also very simple for your child to practice. Have you preschooler practice saying the aforementioned phrases to anyone available. To give you some ideas: you can have them practice saying the phrase to mom, grandma, dad, brother, sister, or babysitter. If your child is somewhat shy a better option might be to practice saying the phrase to their favorite toy or stuffed animal (you can respond on behalf of the toy).
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Best Preschool Gainesville Building Social Skills – Using the Skill
Take your child somewhere where they can meet other children that do they don’t yet know well. This could be a park with children’s playgrounds, a church, school event, or local places like Gainesville Bouncers and Skate Station. On the way to your location remind your child of the introductory phrases you’ve practiced. Upon arriving hang back and let them play for a while giving them a chance to get acquainted with the other children for themselves. You can remind your preschooler about the practiced phrases when a new child arrives or joins the group at play if they’ve forgotten.
Maintaining Interactions
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Best Preschool Gainesville Building Social Skills – Teaching the Skill
As important as it is for your child to learn to initiate interactions it’s just as important that they understand how to maintain an interaction after starting one. You should give your child a series of examples of things they could say or ask during play that will keep the interaction alive and well. A good example would be teaching your child to ask questions about what’s going on such as “What is that? / What are you playing with?” or make comments such as “That’s a cool toy! / That game is so fun!” These will help your child conversate more freely and not feel lost for words
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Best Preschool Gainesville Building Social Skills – Practicing the Skill
Try to initiate conversation with your child during play with them. Invite them to ask you questions and make comments about what you guys are doing during this time. Encourage talking and keep the conversation alive with every sentence they give you.
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Best Preschool Gainesville Building Social Skills – Using the Skill
Whenever your child is playing with other children take not of the verbal interactions going on. Feel free to give your child suggestions on what they can say if you’ve noticed them being quiet or ignoring other children.
We hope you can use the child care tips illustrated in this article to help build up your child’s preschool social schools. We are regarded among the best Preschool Gainesville Program providers because of our dedication to a high-quality curriculum and extensive commitment to helping the children we care for receive the best possible. Contact us today if you have any questions regarding our Gainesville preschool, VPK, after school care, or summer camp services.
