Why are Social Skills Important in Children?

source: verywellfamily

Parents often tend to focus more on academic skills, motor skills and physical growth of their child. However, social development skills are equally essential as they affect almost every aspect of a person's life. So, it becomes essential to guide kids on how to interact and socialise with friends, family, peers, colleagues and others.

With proper development of social skills, children can form positive relationships, develop proper body language, have conversations, and have fun together. Continue reading to know more about the benefits of social development in childhood, its importance and the steps that you can take to improve the same.

Here are the beneficial aspects of developing social skills in children: 

• Enforcement of positive behaviour: Social skills improve positive behaviour in a child. It prevents several problems, such as drug and alcohol consumption, truancy, bullying and violence. It leads to success in health, academics and overall-well being.
• Improvement in other important skills: Effective social competence improves social-emotional skills, social interactions, academic excellence and conduct at home, school or in a community.
• Reduction in emotional distress levels: Once kids acquire social skills, they can interact with their friends and share their distress with them. This will help kids to reduce their emotional distress and feel motivated.

Studies show that kids with better social skills tend to benefit in these areas: 

• More chances of attending post-secondary education 
• Higher chances of acquiring high school diploma
• Lower odds of getting addicted to illegal substances
• Lower chances of breaking laws

Social development is one of the most crucial aspect that decides a child’s growth and advancement. Lack of social skills can prevent a child from creating relationships, cause loneliness, affect their behaviour at school, and can lead to several complications in the long run. Hence, it becomes imperative to ensure proper development of social skill in a child at a young age.

There are a number of social skills that indicate proper child development. Things such as following directions, making eye contact, sharing, giving importance to personal space and cooperating with others are examples of social skills. There are several programmes that help improve social competence and build a strong pillar for success in the long run.

You can instil social skills in your little ones by encouraging them to know how important socialising is. At times, people don't know where to begin to improve their child's social skills. Hence, take a look at some of the ways to improve the social competence of your child: 

• Encourage Your Child to Make Eye Contact: This is one of the best ways of helping children to improve their social skills. Making eye contact with others shows that you are paying attention to what they are saying and are fully engaged in the conversation. While talking to others, encourage your child to maintain eye contact and respond to what they are saying. This will boost your child’s confidence and improve their listening skills as well.

• Encourage Your Little Ones to Ask Questions: Asking relevant questions is indeed the best way to learn about something. Encourage your children to ask questions about themselves and others. Further, you should allow them to call friends and relatives for a question-and-answer session. This will not only help your child socialise with others but also allow them to have new connections and experiences.

• Make Them Learn about Emotions: Sharing knowledge regarding emotional health and different emotions is one of the best ways to enhance your children's social skills. Parents should be like role models, leaders, coaches and teachers for their children. Hence, as a parent, we should teach our children the difference between positive and negative emotions. For example, make them understand that you can cry when you are happy as well as when you are sad.

• Train With Role-Playing: Every child loves to play; hence, we should try to bring some social skills activities to playtime. Some of the simple yet effective ways of doing this include empathy tasks, "how does it make you feel" questions and interviewing games. Empathy tasks mean pretending that your little one is a famous person while you interview them. This will help your child understand how it feels to be in someone else's shoe.

• Understand Your Child’s Limits: Every child tends to socialise in a different way. An introverted child might get tired quickly in a loud and busy social gathering, while an extroverted child might comfortably face such gatherings. Give your child a chance to learn their own comfort zone, and make sure not to force them into a social scene.

• Make Your Children Ready to Face High-Level Social Skills: High-level social skills, such as conflict resolution, negotiation, non-verbal communication, public speaking and assertiveness, will become crucial as a child grows up. Hence, it is important to prepare them accordingly. Encourage your little ones to speak or tell stories in front of a group of friends or relatives. Make them understand the importance of body language while conversing with others. These skills come in handy as a person ages.

As children grow older, they tend to interact more with other people without being under direct supervision by their parents. Hence, it becomes very necessary to understand the importance of social development in childhood. Social skills not only help your child to be comfortable around others but also teach them to achieve goals with persistence and discipline.