Talking about children’s emotional health is important throughout their childhood. By working on skills such as sharing, playing, and waiting are just a few of the ways you can help build social skills with your child.
Sharing
What skills does this help with?
- Being able to share with an adult can provide a model to children on how to share with their peers
- Who is better to teach them than an adult who knows just what to say
Reciprocal Play
Playing together towards a common goal
- E.g. Building a tower together or creating an art project are great starting points which can help build play into more complex play sequences they can enjoy with friends (e.g. pretend play)
- Play is how children learn and helps support their social-emotional health
Delaying Gratification
Allowing a child to wait for something they want to happen
- This helps to expand attention which can help with a variety of social-emotional skills such as pausing before reacting.
- Example: Building a tower together then waiting 3 seconds (count or ready set…pause… GO!) then knocking it down.
Define and help process emotions
Two and three year olds have a LOT of emotions; and that is okay!
- You can help encourage processing those emotions by doing the following
- Name the emotion for your child (e.g. “I see you are stomping your feet; you feel mad)
- Help them calm down; give them some strategies (see below for ideas)
- You can then circle back around to provide context to the emotions
If you or a loved one could benefit from Speech Therapy, call us today at 586-323-2957 to set up your FREE 30 minute screening!
