Let’s Be Friends: Tips for Helping Children Make Friends

Among the essential skills to develop in young children are social skills, and there's nothing better than helping them make friends to achieve this. While playing with others, a preschooler develops skills like sharing, cooperating, listening to others, waiting for their turn, handling disagreements, and trying new ways to look at things.

Many children easily mingle and start to form their first real friendships in preschool, while others find it difficult. So here we are sharing some valuable tips for helping children make friends.

Tips for Helping Children Make Friends

Create Opportunities

Create opportunities to meet if a child is shy or has trouble bonding. For example, enroll them in groups or even more solitary activities like going to the library or taking drawing lessons to allow them to meet other children and share common interests. Moreover, a child who participates in activities they enjoy will be more open to meeting other children and adopt a more positive attitude.

Talk about Friendship

Take advantage of small daily gatherings to let children notice the friends by their side. Start a discussion on friendship and ask the children what friendship or friends mean to them. Record the children's answers on individual cards and post them at the door of your room.

Do not Force Interactions

Encourage contact with one friend at a time first. For a more shy child, getting in touch with one child at a time will be easier than trying to find their place in a group where relationships already exist. If you observe such a child as a daycare teacher in your class, you can discuss this with the child's parents. Ask them to suggest their child invite a friend over. Being at home is likely easier for such children.

Use Parent Surveys, Daily Report Forms, Daily Daycare Schedules, and other forms to involve parents and discuss their children. If a child is having difficulty coping with peers, it is essential to let the parents know.

Here's a list of forms to help maintain ongoing communication with parents.

● Daycare Accident Report

● Daycare Late Payment Notice Form

● Daycare Termination Notice

● Daycare Weekly Menus

● Permission to Photograph Form

You can help them select games that they can play with their friend. However, respect their pace and do not force interactions.

Work on Social Skills

Work on their social skills as needed. If a child has difficulty making contact with peers or their behavior can lead to conflict, feel free to work on their social skills. For example, teach them to wait for their turn, to lose with a good attitude, to make contact with other children, etc.

Help them Navigate Change

As daycare providers, it is your job to help new children starting school process their emotions and navigate change. Talk to them, and give them time to adjust to the new environment to make them comfortable with other kids.

Engage Children in Different Games and Activities

Have fun with the wonderful workshop and activities that promote friendship. The visual arts are a perfect way to share. Make materials available to children, and sharing happens almost naturally!

● Let them make items using different materials and then share them with others. This is an opportunity for children to share their own creations with their friends.

● Coloring pictures representing things to share with friends at home, in the park, at daycare, etc.

● Take out the plastic arts "tools" in limited quantities and ask the children to share them (for example, a tube of glue shared by three friends, a pair of scissors for two friends, etc.).

● One friend starts a drawing, and the other continues it, and so on.

● Use puppets. This game can help a child express their emotions through a character. For example, one puppet might be upset because another took their toy, and you might let a child try to resolve the conflict.

These were some top tips for daycare providers to help children make friends. For more tips and information to employ advanced teaching methods in classrooms and provide children with the best care and learning, join hands with Standout Daycare.

To learn more about our services, contact Standout Daycare.