Why did you do it? I told you not to… God! What are people going to think??

Why are you so stubborn?? Are you even listening to me??

I just told you… Why can’t you remember??

Sound familiar??

Yeah.. this may be something that you regularly hear in homes with kids. No matter what their ages are.

Come to think of it? It’s not really the kid’s fault. The current situation has quite literally chained them up and left them with little to no access to other people, specifically kids their own age. So, naturally, their social skills have gone for a toss!

Social skills are just as essential as reading, writing, or math, maybe even more important for that matter!

“Social skills enable an individual to have and maintain positive interactions with others, sustaining friendships and resolving conflicts.”

These skills can help your kids build positive relationships and maintain them, thereby helping them boost their self-confidence, academic lives, and personal lives. And like Rome, it is not built in a day!!!

It will take a lot of time, effort, and a lot of practice to get to a level where you can be emotionally successful. Hence as a parent, it is your duty as a parent to nurture and hone these skills in your child and encourage them to develop them so they can grow up as mature and well-rounded individuals.

So let us look at how we can develop these skills among children during online school.

social skills during online school

Tips to follow to help children learn social skills during online school

  1. Schedule regular play-dates with friends and classmates

Playdates, even the online ones, can help enhance your child’s mental health and help maintain positive connections with other kids and adults they often interact with.

  1. Have meaningful and intentional communication with each other

The pandemic has left all of us, parents and kids, very vulnerable, be it anger, grief, anxiety, frustration. A meaningful conversation can help a great deal in overcoming these minor hold-ups and encourage more to and fro communication between parents and children.

  1. Teach them about emotions

Your child must learn how to identify emotions so they can read people and express themselves more effectively.

  1. Conduct video calls with friends and family members

Staying in touch with friends and family can help your kid pick up on social cues and learn to read and respond to other people’s emotions. 

  1. Play more games

It is true when they say that kids learn (and retain) best while playing. Games and play tome for kids, even with online schools, can help them understand and learn how to behave around other kids and adults. Also read, How to make homeschooling fun 

  1. Encourage sharing and cooperation among each other

Now, social skills do not only mean getting your kid to talk. It means getting them to cooperate and share with others, which will help maintain healthy relationships throughout their lives.

  1. Teach them the importance of listening

Listening is an integral part of communication, and kids should be taught to listen right from a young age. They need to understand that people will only listen to them if they believe they are being heard.

  1. Inform them of the concept of personal space and boundaries

Every child needs to understand the idea of boundaries and personal space. It is second nature for kids to be demanding or parents being too busy, leaving the kids feeling ignore or left out. This, in turn, affects their mental health. So, teaching them about respecting boundaries and personal space can help them in the long run.

Parting thoughts:

So, there you have it!

Social skills should not be too much of a hindrance during virtual learning. Give it some time and try out some of these tips to help kids develop socially and emotionally even if they are stuck at home and glued to their devices. Don’t worry. The pandemic will be over soon enough, schools will reopen, and our kids will be all set to go back and strengthen their skills and abilities to succeed in all that life throws at them.

Hope you found these tips to teach kids social skills during online school helpful. Do let us know in the comments below how you are managing your kids in this phase.

I’m taking my blog to the next level with Blogchatter’s My Friend Alexa. 

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