🤷 Social skills are easy to teach. 🤷

Children can learn the positive values of treating each other with respect and taking responsibility for their own behaviour.

The steps to teaching social skills are similar to teaching academic subjects except that play and group activities and discussion plays a stronger role.

This can be difficult to do in your hectic day to day life so here are a few tips to help you structure some sessions in groups or for you to spend some one on one time with you.

👉 Identify the skill that needs to be learned

👉 Introduce the skill through discussion and modelling of the desired response

👉 Give the rule and alternatives to the rule

👉 Cue the child what to say and do regarding the new skill

👉 Have the child cue himself through self talk

👉 Provide practice of the skill through modelling, games, puppet and doll play, and role playing

👉 Reinforce the new skill during practice

👉 Teach the child to reinforce himself using self talk for using the skill (Feel good about using the skill!)

👉 Provide opportunities for generalization and reinforcement of the skill in daily play

I hope this helps you spend some quality time with your child in a calming environment and support them in learning some new skills at the same time!