6 Tips to Increase Your Child's Social Emotional Skills
This week is Social Emotional Learning Week and schools across the country are implementing activities to help foster these crucial skills in their students. Of course, children go to school to develop academic skills, such as reading, writing, and math, but what about their social and emotional skills? There is a huge movement right now encouraging educators to implement social and emotional learning activities in their curriculum, but this is also something you can help support at home, too! Today I am excited to share 6 ways you can help foster social emotional skills in your children at home…
1. Encourage Empathy – In both my personal and professional opinion, empathy is one of the greatest skills we can help develop in our children. Empathy is how well you (or your child) is able to understand and share in the feelings of others from their perspective. A familiar way of explaining empathy is “putting yourself in someone else’s shoes” and it is not only a critical skill for social development, but for your child’s future relationships (romantic, workplace, friendships, etc.)
2. Celebrate Diversity – By exposing your child to different people and lifestyles, you can help increase their social emotional skills. Some ways to do this is by spending time with people who look different from your family, people who have different family relationships (i.e., single parents, live-in grandparents, guardians, etc.), and people who practice different religions. You can also fill your home with books and movies that portray a variety of characters. For some inclusive books, click here!
3. Manage Emotions – Have discussions with your child about healthy emotions. Most emotions can be healthy or unhealthy, depending on the situation. For example, pride can be healthy when you score a goal in a soccer game, but can be unhealthy when you brag about getting a higher grade than your classmate. Talk about strategies for dealing with emotions and most importantly, model healthy management of your emotions! My dear friend, Sarah Chesworth, has an incredible course that has an entire lesson specifically about social and emotional development, complete with videos, printable and developmental checklists. You can purchase it here!
4. Practice Mindfulness – Essentially, mindfulness is slowing down and paying attention to what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. This can be as broad or as specific as you wish, such as mindful breathing as you walk to recess, or pausing before responding to a bully. Mindfulness helps kids practice empathy and regulate emotions, so it is one of the best ways to help children cope with life’s stresses and in turn, develop their social emotional skills.
5. Acts of Kindness - There are countless benefits to teaching your children to be kind, but amongst the most important are increased gratitude, higher self-esteem, and a positive outlook on the world. Some acts of kindness you can practice with your children are giving compliments, helping a friend or neighbor with chores, writing thank you notes, or donating gently used clothes/toys. Here are some ways to spread kindness in your community this summer!
6. Positive Self-Talk - Your thoughts are the source of your attitude and emotions. You can help your child by first identifying any negative self-talk and then providing phrases to shift the narrative. For example, if you child says, “I am so stupid,” after getting a low grade on a test, you can help them by saying something like, “I know this test didn’t go the way you wanted it to, but you’re such a hard worker and I am proud of how hard you studied.” After identifying negative self-talk, reinforce positive sentence starters, such as “I can…” “I am…” and “I will…” and make sure that you are modeling these phrases and practicing your own positive self-talk!
I also have a free activity for you to complete with your child to help them improve their social emotional skills. They can complete this activity independently or with your help and you can use the prompts I have provided, or you can create your own. Click here to download for FREE!
