Helping Children Meet Their Full Potential Faster
Social skills enable children to know how to act in various social situations, such as chatting with relatives or playing with friends in school. They help kids make friends, learn from others, pick up hobbies, etc. These skills help them forge valuable relationships and bonds and give them security and self-worth. Good social skills are also helpful for the child’s mental health and quality of life.
Practice play: Teach the child to use toys/props to act out scenarios. For example, a tea or dinner party with dolls, hugging a soft toy or using a play set to create stories. The play set can be a railway station, a shop, or a farm.
Role-playing: This strategy is quite useful in imparting social skills. For example, playing games with other children on playdates or in the park can be effective before visiting social places like parks, parties, or malls. For older children, you could incorporate social problems into role-play scenarios.
Social stories: Use social stories to teach communication and participation in social activities.
Visual supports: Depending on the child’s learning requirements, visual supports could be pictures, words, checklists, or prompt cards. Pictures can be used to teach the child how to play a particular game, and words or pictures can act as prompts for various conversation topics.
Social skills training: ABA therapy emphasizes inculcating social skills in children on the spectrum. It is designed to enhance skills associated with social play, social language, and social intuition.
We can all work together to develop children's social skills so that they can shine as adults. With love, patience, support, and strategies, getting a child to flourish socially is no longer challenging. It takes time, but we will get there.
