Activities for Children With Social Skill Problems

It is important for children to learn appropriate social skills at a young age so that they will be accepted by others, do well in school, develop socially and prevent self-alienation. There are activities especially designed to help children develop social skills and self-control, good peer relationships, communication skills and problem-solving abilities.

  1. Game to Identify Emotional Expressions

    • Children who have better social skills are able to read other people's faces effectively to identify emotions. Make a game using flash cards with people's faces on them expressing emotions such as happy, mad, sad and scared. Make your own cards by putting magazine cut-outs on card stock and laminating them. A child picks a card and mimics the expression so the others guess the emotion.The child could also make up a story to explain the person's emotion.

    Sports

    • Playing on a sports team affords children the opportunity to practice effective social skills. Children may become less aggressive in general and get along with their peers better in school. Explain that good sportsmanship involves being respectful to all team players, cooperation, and conflict resolution. For further motivation, a coach can give each team an overall score regarding team spirit and good sportsmanship.

    Role-playing Social Scripts

    • A social script is a description of expected behavior in a certain situation. When you go to the dentist, for example, you are expected to give your name to the receptionist, wait in the waiting room, get called in when it's your turn, sit in the dentist's chair and open your mouth wide. Children demonstrate much better social skills when they know what is expected of them and when they have a chance to practice expected behavior. Role-play various scenarios with children that may occur at home, at school and in the community.

    Active Listening Activity for Older Children

    • Social skills can be improved significantly just by learning how to listen well. Have children get in to groups of three. Assign a role to each: listener, observer and speaker. The speaker's role is talk about something meaningful to them for a few minutes. The speaker has to listen carefully and then repeat the main points. The observer is to describe how the listener showed they were listening to the speaker.The children change roles until everyone has had a chance to play each role.

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