There are some social skills that every child should acquire when they are young in order to be able to communicate well and cope with their responsibilities while continuing their life as an adult. So, what do scientists working in the field of child development say or suggest about the acquisition of these social skills?
social skills, It is a definition used for all of the attitudes, behaviors and emotions that enable individuals to adapt to their social environment, to have a place in the society and to establish healthy interpersonal communication.
These children social skills The most critical point for them to win and integrate them into their lives correctly is to learn at the right time with the right role models. Here, too, parents have serious responsibilities. If parents want their children to develop social skills in a healthy way, they must be good role models for each social skill.
held in 2014 with the participation of many academics. Social Skills Support Project in Pre-School Education (OSBEP) There is a guide prepared within the scope of the research. As a result of studies on children’s social skills social skills evaluated under four main headings.
Social skills that children should acquire:
- Beginner Skills
- Academic Support Skills
- Dating Skills
- Emotion Management Skills
1. Beginning skills
Social skills, which are gathered under a general title as initial skills, are generally basic communication skills consists of items for development. Being able to meet others, introduce oneself, listen to others, apologize, thank and ask for help Situations that we encounter at every moment of our life, such as critical ones, are among the behaviors acquired with initial skills.
At this point, it is extremely important not only the one-to-one communication that parents establish with their children, but also the communication they establish among themselves and the close circles witnessed by the child. Children continue all these communication processes. observing he takes his parents as an example and shapes his communication according to what he learns from these examples.
At the same time, children’s communication styles develop differently from the social environments and communication styles their parents are accustomed to. In addition to the relatively more superficial communication established through social media, with the decreasing socialization after the pandemic, children now spend most of their days. not with their peers they spend with their parents. The age of social media usage is constantly decreasing. At this point, parents should supervise their children’s use of social media and direct them to points that will support the development of their communication skills.
2. Academic support skills
What children want to learn about being able to ask questions, answer the questions posed to him, produce alternative solutions to the problems he encounters, strive to reach the goal, make constructive criticism, be open to criticism, bring the end of an activity he started and engage himself with an activity like learning skills All of them are gathered under the heading of academic support skills.
With the acquisition of academic support skills, children have the ability to acquire knowledge and share it by questioning. At the same time, it is necessary for children to show competence in taking responsibility, fulfilling the responsibilities taken, and producing solutions for problems. in the early period must acquire these skills.
At this point, parents should encourage their children to ask questions and answer them in a way that they can understand. At the same time, the negative consequences of these behaviors should be gently talked about, especially with children who have difficulty in finishing the activity they started or who do not fully fulfill their responsibilities, and what is true should be explained in a positive language. Such positive steps are for children. instructive is evaluated as.
3. Dating skills
Friendship skills are very important for children to be able to communicate and socialize properly with their peers. Empathy ability its development and among these skills that strengthen communication; skills such as understanding the feelings of friends and developing appropriate reactions to their feelings, cooperating with friends, learning to share, protecting the rights of others, offering help to people in need, acting according to the rules while playing games and accepting the result of the game.
With the acquisition of these skills, children learn how to act in the social environments they enter, healthy communication adopts the rules that form the basis of it and gains experience in situations that require empathy.
published in the journal Psychological Science. to the article According to the research, children are more likely to be 7-8 years old on average, especially when it comes to sharing. reluctant and selfish can behave. Because they develop an idea that sharing will reduce their pleasure by dividing them. From the age of 7-8, this mentality begins to change and the idea of being fair begins to settle in their minds. This increases sharing.
We know that the behavior that forms the basis of friendship skills in children is based on empathy and sharing. The way to develop these skills is to choose a communication language that will nurture both. ‘If you share your toy with your friend, I’m sure he will be very happy too.’ Making children feel that what they are doing is both a good thing and a happy behavior with affirmative expressions such as the ability to empathize him the the urge to share feeds.
4. Skills to manage their emotions
When it comes to child development, one of the most important points is undoubtedly the ability of children to cope with their own emotional states and to manage their own emotions. Under this heading, such as being able to express emotions such as joy, sadness, fear, anger, expressing emotions without disturbing others, coping with mistakes in behavior, saying no, accepting no, thinking before reacting to a situation that one does not like social skills is located.
Thanks to these skills, children can both cope with their own emotional states and in situations that occur as a result of their emotions, situations and behaviors. to take responsibility is learning. Thanks to these skills acquired in the pre-school period, children can establish a much more confident and healthy communication in the new social environment they enter, for example at school or in playgroups.
It is very important for children to acquire all these social skills in order to become adults who can communicate well, solve problems and take responsibility in the future. However, all these skills are not acquired only through communication with parents. For this reason, children create their own space It is also extremely critical to allow them to communicate with their peers as often as possible.
For this reason, it would be a good start to first teach every child to respect their personal space and the personal space of other people.
