How Early Education Helps Children Develop Social Skills

Does your child behave like this in everyday situations?

They may be shy around strangers and reluctant to greet other people. They may be lively and active at home but quiet and reserved when they are outside. At preschool, they may often play by themselves.

Many parents worry about this and wonder whether their child will be able to make friends as they grow up.

Social development is an important part of childhood development. It helps children make the transition from family life into the wider community and affects their ability to adapt socially as well as their personality development.

Good social skills can help children move beyond an overly self-centered way of thinking and develop a better emotional understanding of themselves, other people, and society. They can also help children develop a sense of belonging and security and face the challenges of life with greater confidence.

Before working on a child’s social skills, it is important to understand how social development changes at different ages.

Children generally enter a sensitive period for interpersonal relationships between the ages of three and four. According to child education expert Sun Ruixue, the development of children’s relationships during this sensitive period can be divided into three stages.

Between the ages of three and four, children’s interactions are often one-to-one. They may build relationships by exchanging objects, food, or toys. Conflicts are common, but children often make up with each other soon afterward.

Between the ages of four and five, children begin to interact in groups of three or four. They also show clearer preferences when choosing friends. The earlier pattern of making friends mainly through exchanges gradually comes to an end, and children begin looking for friends who share similar interests. Emotional attachment and communication also become more important.

After the age of five, children become more interested in rules and increasingly want to cooperate with others. They begin to show their own value through activities and work toward building harmonious friendships. From this point onward, children begin to develop a more genuine understanding of friendship.

In this sense, social experiences during the preschool years lay an important foundation for children’s future relationships with others.

After understanding the characteristics of social development at different ages, parents can also observe their own children’s personalities and social tendencies and provide guidance based on their individual needs.

A child’s ability to interact well with others is closely connected with learning ability, language development, intellectual activities, emotional responses, and social behavior. These areas influence one another, so children’s social development can be supported in three main areas: language ability, social skills, and social rules.

Language ability is an important foundation for social interaction. Parents can teach children to properly receive and understand what other people say by deliberately developing their comprehension skills. During everyday conversations, parents can talk more with their children and gradually use more precise language instead of relying on repeated baby words such as “food-food” or “sleep-sleep.”

Parents can encourage children to share what they have seen and heard and learn to describe the same thing in different ways. They can also give children one small task each day, gradually moving from instructions with a single condition to instructions involving several steps. This helps children build a foundation for understanding language used in everyday tasks.

Children also need to learn how to express their own thoughts accurately. Parents can ask children more questions and encourage them to explain their ideas themselves. When a child has difficulty expressing something, parents can approach the question from another angle or provide a helpful hint. They should avoid interrupting the child harshly or simply speaking on the child’s behalf.

Everyday parent-child conversations can provide simple opportunities to practice social communication. Parents can ask children to introduce themselves by saying, “Hi, my name is xxx. Can you tell me about yourself?” They can also create situations in which children practice joining someone who shares a common interest, such as saying, “Excuse me, I would like to read this book too. Can I read it with you?”

Parents can encourage children to share something that made them happy, something they like, or a food they enjoy. These conversations help children build up things they can talk about with others. Parents can also ask questions such as, “Why do you like or dislike group activities so much?” to encourage children to express their opinions.

Before a child goes to preschool, parents can prepare them for possible social situations by discussing questions they may encounter. For example, parents can ask, “If your teacher asks you in the morning what you did at home last night, how would you answer?” Parents can also ask children to talk about their best friend and explain why they like that person. This can help parents understand their child’s social circle while giving the child more opportunities to practice expressing thoughts about relationships.

Social skills are another important part of children’s development. Children need to learn basic social manners and how to communicate and cooperate with others. For example, when they want to join another child’s game, they can politely ask, “Would you like to play together?” or “Would you like to exchange toys with me?”

Body language and other forms of nonverbal communication are also important. Children can learn that gestures, facial expressions, and body movements can communicate different meanings. Parents can help children understand how different emotions may be expressed through body language, such as being friendly and welcoming, listening carefully, showing interest, or becoming bored.

Children can also learn simple gestures that communicate ideas such as here, there, this, that, come here, go away, go, refusal, welcome, and quiet, as well as gestures for numbers from one to ten.

Social rules are another important area to develop. Children who understand and follow rules may find it easier to interact positively with their peers. Parents can teach children to consider their friends’ suggestions and opinions. When they disagree, they can discuss the issue and try to reach an agreement. When playing games, children should follow the rules and learn to accept losing without arguing or refusing to accept the result.

At the same time, parents need to establish clear boundaries and prevent inappropriate behavior. Small disagreements and minor rough play are normal when children play together, but behaviors such as deliberately hitting others, using offensive language, or bullying younger or weaker children should not be accepted. Parents should intervene promptly when such behavior occurs.

Parents’ attitudes toward their children’s social problems are particularly important when helping children develop social skills. At the same time, the example parents set and the ways they teach their children should not be overlooked.

When children have disagreements while playing or interacting with others, they often turn to adults for help. Some parents may become emotional as soon as they see their child being treated unfairly and immediately step in to solve the problem. However, if children become accustomed to having their parents defend them whenever something happens, they may receive the message that they do not need to deal with interpersonal problems themselves.

What children really need is not for adults to solve every disagreement for them, but to show them how they can handle conflicts when they arise. When parents learn to step back and provide guidance from the background, children have more opportunities to develop their own social skills.

Parents can also teach social behavior through their own actions in everyday life. Young children often have little understanding of social rules and appropriate boundaries, so in addition to being taught directly by their parents, they can learn by observing how adults interact with others.

Parents can therefore make a conscious effort to create social opportunities in everyday life. For example, they can invite friends who have children of a similar age to spend time together. This not only gives children an opportunity to observe appropriate social behavior but also creates a natural setting in which they can interact with other children.

It is also helpful to use a variety of approaches when supporting children’s social development. The ages of three to six are an important period for the development of observation, learning, social organization, and many other abilities.

In addition to everyday conversations, activities, and parental modeling, parents can provide children with different ways to learn about social interaction. Picture books, animated videos, parent-child games, and outdoor activities can all give children opportunities to observe, experience, and understand how people interact with one another.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow said that belonging and love are basic human needs. Children can find a great deal of satisfaction in the happy moments they share with their peers.

With patient guidance and support from their parents, children can gradually find a social rhythm and way of interacting that suits them. In the process, they can build sincere friendships and develop close relationships with their peers.