Friendship offers opportunities, learning, fun, excitement, self-disclosure, support, advice and long term relationship. Developing and maintaining friendships is important for a child’s social, emotional, psychological and moral development.
Good friendships help children to learn and practice important social and emotional skills.
Kids these days find difficulty in making friends Or maintaining friendships for that matter. It’s quite a task for them.
Kids with no friend or one friend only feels unhappy and lonely. They are at higher risk of academic under-achievement and dropping out of school. They are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety.
So It becomes our duty to teach them how to make friends and if they already have one then how to maintain that relationship with them..
- Teach your kids how to introduce themselves when they meet new kids.
- Teach them that not only it is important to Speak your mind but it’s also important to listen others and be a good listener….Teach them the benefits of active listening.
- Try to have conversations with your kids about their friends…Ask them how everything is going.
- Help kids learn the art of compromise and negotiation.
- Encourage role playing activities at home
- Encourage your children to have empathy for others. Teach them to forgive others for their mistakes..
- Children learn by observing behavior of their parents.. They learn good or bad from what they watch around them .. you have the strongest influence on them So try to become a good example for your children.
- Try to communicate with your child’s friends whenever they come to your house.
- Monitor your child’s activities indoor and outdoor. Supervision is very important.
- Teach your child not to make fake friends online. You need to keep an eye on them in order to avoid any kind of harassments.
- Work on their communication skills because communication is key in every aspects of life.
- Demonstrate good behavior when u talk to your family members and your own friends.
- toys and games help children develop social skills. Engage your children in group activities.
Tips for teachers
- Treat all students equally. A teacher should treat the students equally. Teachers sometimes pay more attention to one child who is their favorite and less to others. No one wants to be friend with that kid because they think that he/she will tell all their secrets to teacher..
- If a student comes to you with a problem related to friendship, then keep that conversation confidential and help him solve his problem.
- Conduct some sharing activities in class so that children will get the chance to make friends.
- Children mostly want to be friends with someone who matches their likes and interests, so encourage them to talk about what they like through activities or games to help them form bonds with other like-minded students.
- Encourage them to talk about friendship. Ask them what does they mean by friendship, what is the definition of friendship according to them.
- You can also ask the kids to play a complimentary card game. Each student will write a positive thing about themselves on the board. This will give the students an opportunity to get to know each other.
