Children learn and grow through their surrounding environments and early interactions with others. You have to remember that children are like little sponges that soak up everything around them. At an early age when given the opportunity to socialize a child with their peers, they will learn how to excel in a collaborative learning environment, while learning skill sets that are vital to their development.

Top 3 ways to help socialize your child:

1. PLAY! Let your child engage with children their own age and play without adult or sibling participation. Let your child have that feeling of “I’m free”. You can watch them explore, learn, and play with each other and see what kind of imagination will flow from it.

2. Let your child talk: As a parent myself, I know how busy life can get. At times, we may repeat the same words when our child is explaining yet another story. We say things like “yes dear, that’s great, good job!” without really listening. Let your child discuss their stories or issues with you and be physically present when they are speaking to you. Ask them questions to show you are truly engaged in what they are telling you. By doing this, you will see such pride from your child and a willingness to communicate with you and their peers. In turn, you will also be encouraging their language skills.

Another way to encourage your child to talk is when they are interacting with their peers. At some point, they will likely get into a disagreement. Whether or not it is “Johnny won’t share the toy with me” or “Sally won’t let me play with her”. Parents can be too quick to jump into a situation to help their children resolve their differences. Let your child talk to their peers to try to work out their problem on their own. Obviously, if they do need adult assistance, be there as the mediator and encourage your child to use their own words. Once they do resolve their issues, make sure you praise them for working it out independently. This will instill confidence as well as problem solving skills.

3. Enroll your child in programs. Enrolling in preschool, daycare or any group program will have a large impact on your child’s social development. Your child will learn things that you as the parent cannot teach. Children need to learn through experience, trial and error. Enrolling them into a program is the best way to teach this. A group environment is where your child will start developing his or her own self-identity. They will begin to realize their likes, dislikes and learn how to develop and maintain friendships. They will learn how to speak and interact in groups, which will prepare them for their future. Children will also learn extremely valuable life lessons and develop important personality traits. Some main concepts they will gain from group interactions are confidence, leadership skills, problem solving and critical thinking language.

In order to prepare children for life, it is important that we as adults always encourage social interaction, and teach healthy ways to interact with other children and adults. Socialization skills are extremely important - not only for school but for relationships and careers down the line.