Building Social and Emotional Skills at Home
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School classrooms are busy places where young children learn all sorts of things, including social and emotional skills such as how to express feelings and how to work together with friends on a project. Here are some suggestions for helping your child develop social and emotional skills at home.
Puppets.听Teachers sometimes talk with children about conflicts and help them think about solutions while using puppets and families can try this technique at home. Puppets are a great way to introduce children to feeling words like听happy, sad, angry,听and children will sometimes talk to puppets about their feelings. Puppets can also help in discussions about challenging topics, like getting to bed on time.
Think out loud.听When your child hears your thinking process, it helps her understand how to cope with frustration and solve problems: 鈥淲hoops. My favorite shopping bag has a hole in it. I鈥檇 better take another one with me to the grocery store.鈥�
Read bedtime stories.听There is something magical about this end-of-the-day routine that makes it the ideal time for talking about feelings. Discuss the characters and events in the story. Invite your child to share her thoughts and feelings by asking questions: 鈥淲hat do you think he should do? How do you think she feels? What would you do if you were this character?鈥�
Do a job together.听Instead of asking your child to do a chore alone, do it with her. The two of you might fold laundry, set the table, rake leaves, or paint a wall. Help your child join in by shortening the handle of a broom to make it child-size or providing a small paintbrush or roller.
Play games.听Card and board games and outdoor games such as tag or hop-scotch offer built-in opportunities for helping children learn to take turns, cooperate, handle frustration, and more. While playing games together, focus on fun instead of winning or losing.
Prevent potential problems.听Before a friend comes to play, help your child put away toys he does not want to share. Before taking a bus to the zoo, provide a step-by-step explanation of what you will do: 鈥淲e will wait at the bus stop for 5 minutes, then get on the bus and sit together and watch the sights go by for about 30 minutes [explain this as the length of one episode of a favorite TV show]. Then we will walk three blocks to the zoo and tour the lion house before anything else!鈥� During the trip, remind your preschooler of what will happen next.
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Source: Adapted from the Message in a Backpack, Teaching Young Children 4 (4): 12