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Often, we look at our children's physical growth - but many also forget to see the social-emotional development of our children - one of them is developing their social skills.
As children age, their interactions with others and their environment will vastly expand too. This means they will have an increased opportunity to communicate and spread positivity to other people.
All the more, the need to help develop their social skills becomes more crucial as they grow.
One significant aspect of social skills is called prosocial behaviour. The definition of prosocial behaviour is a particular set of behaviour that will positively impact others or a specific community. Such behaviour is crucial as it will help their social skills and communication with others. Prosocial behaviours include empathy, caring, cooperation, sharing and taking turns.
Needless to say, the development of prosocial behaviours within our children is crucial for them to acquire - dare I say, it is a considerable chunk of developing their social skills as a whole!
If you know children, you will realise that promoting social behaviours within our children can seem like an arduous task - or downright practically impossible. After all, they are not robots programmed to have prosocial behaviours in their brain immediately, and we adults must teach such behaviours! So what steps can we take to help promote their prosocial behaviours?
Create an environment that cultivates self-help skills.
Self-help skills are crucial - and in this day and age, children are not learning self-help skills quickly due to their caregivers frequently doing all tasks for them - even menial functions that help to improve their self-help skills!
As such, self-help skills are crucial as it helps with the child’s development and helps in cultivating prosocial behaviour, too, as they can allow children to have a sense of cooperation and independence.
Examples of creating such an environment include having a consistent daily routine or using pictures to label areas so young children can locate, use, and return the materials independently without relying on others.
This can further encourage your children to help each other since their environment is conducive to carrying out tasks to help each other.
Acknowledge your children's own ideas.
Sometimes, children have their own set of contributions. Although most of them are irrelevant, depending on the circumstance, some are useful and can be of worthy assistance!
Always welcome their efforts and contributions as much as possible, primarily when they revolve around sharing, caring, helping, and cooperating.
Moreover, you can create activities that revolve around prosocial behaviours and be intentional with your approach - meaning the activities you plan are designed to develop their prosocial behaviour.
For example, embark on a group art project with your child that involves multiple aesthetic tools to promote a sense of cooperation and sharing ability. Or embark on any tasks (which must be safe, of course) which involve group participation with all your children to develop their teamwork and helping skills.
Develop a sense of camaraderie.
This point is relatively straightforward. By developing a sense of camaraderie between your children, it will be easier for them to be kind, caring, and emphatic for one another, strengthening the sense of community.
To develop camaraderie, establish supportive atmospheres where everyone is expected to be kind and supportive of one another. Simple methods of doing that include using phrases like “our group” or “ we did it together!” Furthermore, develop an atmosphere where no one is left out among your children, and each child is treated equally with no favourites.
That is the true sense of camaraderie; because everyone is in it together.
Focus more on any of your children that are consistently picked/rejected.
It hurts to know that any of your children are picked on or shunned away by whatever group outside there may be.
Should this ever happen to your child, you will need to give them more attention to help build their self-esteem.
Often, their self-esteem will be extremely low because of developing the feeling of typically being shunned, picked on or rejected. Thus, they will more likely not engage in prosocial behaviours such as caring and helping others with the fear of being rejected and picked on again.
To find out more about the negative effects on children that are constantly picked on, read our article on bullying!
Encourage children to be vocal with each other.
Sometimes, your child may have the intention of exhibiting prosocial behaviour or knows the concept of prosocial behaviours such as sharing, caring, and being empathetic.
However, due to their limited vocabulary, they cannot voice out their intentions; as such, this may cause us, adults, to perceive that they still do not understand the concept of prosocial behaviours - but instead, they do! You just got to observe them closely for you to notice.
As such, create opportunities for your child to interact with anyone - you, your child’s friend, the store uncle etc. Provide them with the words they may need assistance expressing themselves, and allow them to see one another’s perspective outside their own just with their actions and dialogue. Once that is done, acknowledge their efforts by praising them accordingly.
Model the behaviour that you want for your child.
Most importantly, if you want your child to acquire specific behaviours, such as being emphatic, kind, and sharing, you must model that behaviour.
Children will typically look up to their adults - especially the behaviours of adults. Eventually, they will imitate the behaviours of the adults within their environment.
Hence, it is crucial for you to model the behaviour you want them to acquire so that they can replicate and acquire it eventually.
Have any questions? Leave a comment in the comment section below today!
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