As you know, communication is an inevitable part of life. Even if you don’t verbally communicate with someone, you communicate through your actions, expressions, thoughts, ideas, and reactions. Thus, social development in early childhood is a vital part.
Most parents are not aware of the benefits and ways of social and emotional development in early childhood. This might make their kids shy. Sometimes kids fail to understand the way to behave in front of others. This might bring embarrassment to you. But don’t worry, through this article, you will know the benefits of physical cognitive, and social development in early childhood, how to develop social skills in early childhood? and what factors affect social development in early childhood?
Benefits of Social Development in Early Childhood
Before understanding how to develop social skills in early childhood? It is vital to know its significance. Some of the benefits of Social and emotional development in early childhood are:
It Provides Career and Educational Benefits
In research conducted by Duke University and Penn State, students who were good in social skills like cooperation, sharing, following, and listening have a greater probability of pursuing a college degree. Also, kids with these skills, at the age of 5, mostly get full-time employment by 25.
It Doubles the Probability Of Success
In the American Journal of Public Health, a study was published related to physical cognitive, and social development in early childhood. According to it, inculcating these skills in kindergarten is a huge step towards a successful life. It gives them the skill of networking that results in a bright future.
Stronger Friendship
A person equipped with social skills can make and adjust with peers easily. So, your kids will have a lot of friends to help them out in difficult times. The International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioural Science published a study. According to it, childhood friendships are fruitful for kids.
These are some of the key benefits of Social and emotional development in early childhood. Various things affect these skills. The next section deals with it.
Also Read: What is Children’s Social Development? A Quick Guide
What factors affect social development in early childhood?
Kids’ social development depends on various factors. One of the key factors is the environment. You might observe that a kid with friendly parents is good at connecting. Also, joint families play a vital role in social development. Kids are used to living among lots of people. They automatically acquire skills of sharing, listening, co-operating, speaking, etc.
Most parents fail to understand the significance of Physical cognitive and social development in early childhood. Here are some of the issues a kid might face if they lack social skills.
- They fail to make close connections. Thus, most of the time they are forced to take public assistance instead of personal advice.
- It might bring unexpected legal trouble.
- Since kids fail to make connections in the future, they might start feeling lonely. This can result in substance abuse problems.
- Kids might fail to sustain or maintain a relationship because of their inability to express themselves.
Most of the time people fail to realize that the root cause of these issues is a lack of basic social skills. The list of such skills is listed in the next section.
List of Social Skills
These are some of the common social skills that kids should learn:
Sharing
Most kids don’t like to share their toys or snacks with other kids. If your kid also does so, you should not encourage them. Kids should have the willingness to share. Initially let them share small things like a bite in their chocolate, a spoon of ice cream from their bowl, etc. This will build their sharing skill.
Slowly your kids will start sharing their ideas and thoughts with you. It will help you to understand them in a better way.
Co-operating
When you work in your office, you cooperate with your colleagues to make a successful project or crack a business deal. You might need to adjust at some points but that is vital for your success.
Similarly, if your kids will know the skill to cooperate, they will easily complete the work. They will also respect the ideas and thoughts of others. To inculcate it you can provide them with a goal and ask them to complete it with the help of their friends. You can set a simple aim like building a tower from blocks or making a plastic car with an engineer set. It will help them a lot.
Listening
Listening to someone requires a lot of patience. Don’t confuse listening with hearing. There is a hairline difference. When you hear someone, you don’t absorb the things they say. However, listening involves hearing and then applying it in your life.
Listening will help kids from their classroom to the interview hall. A person with good listening skills becomes a good orator. You can inculcate this skill by asking questions. When you are reciting a story or poem, stop in between and ask them to tell you about any character of that story. They will gradually start listening to you carefully.
These are the skills that every parent should develop within their kids. Thus, the next section deals with how to develop social skills in early childhood?
How to Develop Social Skills in Early Childhood?
Here are a few things that might help in social and emotional development in early childhood.
Encourage Eye Contact
Confidence is the key to successful communication. With practising eye contact they will soon reflect confidence in their conversation. Thus, whenever your kid talks to a relative or friends, ask them to talk while making eye contact.
Let Them Understand Emotions
An excellent way to do so is to guess the emotion game. The game requires a chit of paper with different emotions written on it. You can also play the game in groups. Ask a kid to pick and chit and act according to the emotion written on it. Then the others will guess it. In this way, your kid will learn to understand the emotions of a person through their body language.
Provide Them a Communicative Environment
If you are a working parent with a single child, your kid might feel lonely sometimes. Before the pandemic, there were schools and parks to provide them with an interactive environment. However, the pandemic put a stop to all these things. But your kids can still get a school-type environment through online Edutect platforms like Real School Of Montessori. They will also learn various trendy courses like coding, robotics, communication, etc.
Through these ways, kids will soon develop lots of social etiquettes within them.
Conclusion
Now, you know everything about Social development in early childhood. Through some simple steps, you can give your kid a prosperous and bright future.
