Supporting Your Child’s Social Skills
Jay Still, MS, CCC-SLP
Social interactions play a vital role in a child’s development, both at school and at home. They help children build communication skills, develop empathy, and strengthen their sense of belonging. At school, opportunities for meaningful peer engagement can enhance social confidence and support academic learning. As educators, it’s critical for us to provide these types of meaningful interactions for our students so they have the opportunity to make social gains. One recent example is when one of our classrooms partnered with another classroom to start a community garden. This collaboration allowed students from both classes to work together on a shared goal while also exposing them to peers they may not typically interact with during the school day. As a result, students not only gained hands-on experience in gardening but also expanded their social circles by spending time with a new group of students.
As a speech-language pathologist at The Wolf School, I understand that many of our students may struggle with social skills. This is a common area of growth for Complex Learners. Along with my team members, I support students’ social interactions in several ways to offer them opportunities for growth, learning, and development. During our SEL (Social Emotional Learning) block, I utilize the Everyday Speech curriculum to explicitly teach social-emotional skills, including perspective-taking, conversation strategies, and self-regulation. I also provide support during classroom activities such as PE, whole-group, and small-group instruction to help students navigate peer interactions in real time. Additionally, I assist students in understanding and processing social situations, whether it’s resolving a misunderstanding or navigating a new experience by breaking down the components of the interaction and providing strategies for future success.
While social interactions are an important part of the school day, they also take place outside of school hours. That’s why as a parent of a Complex Learner, it’s just as important for you to get involved and encourage social interactions. By providing consistent support, modeling positive interactions, and creating opportunities for meaningful peer engagement, caregivers and educators can empower children to build the confidence to navigate social relationships. Below are a few ways you can help!
Encourage Social Interactions For Complex Learners
- Join after-school sports or other recreational programs
Participating in school-based programs helps students meet others with shared interests and encourages teamwork and communication. Similar to the community garden example shared above, joining an after-school sport or recreational program also provides a common goal to all the children involved which can help make the socializing aspect a little bit easier.
- Community Service
Volunteering in the community gives students a chance to interact with people of different ages and backgrounds while building empathy and learning responsibility for their community. Whether it’s volunteering at an animal shelter or collecting donations for a food or clothing drive, there are plenty of ways to get involved. Ask your child what they would be interested in helping with – they’ll likely be more eager to participate in something they had a say in choosing.
- Attend School Events
Events like family fun day, school dances, and sporting events provide relaxed settings where students can connect socially outside of the classroom. Along with spending time with their own classmates, this also gives them a chance to see students from other classes and staff that they might not otherwise spend time with. By increasing their familiarity with different community members, this can also make transitioning year to year to a new classroom a little bit easier for them.
- Practice Social Skills at Home
At Wolf, we focus on social skills and building these skills throughout the day but like so much of what we do, it’s critical that these skills and lessons are also being taught at home. Role-playing conversations, taking turns in games, or simply having family meals with open dialogue strengthen communication habits.
- Plan Playdates
Spending time together outside of school helps deepen friendships and makes school interactions more comfortable and natural. If your child hasn’t had a lot of experience with playdates, don’t be afraid to provide some structure instead of leaving it to be exclusively open play. Start with a shorter time frame and a planned activity, like going bowling together for an hour. Then you can continue to build on it until your child is comfortable.
- Social Skills Group In addition to all the examples provided above, sometimes Complex Learners continue to need more focused lessons around social skills. If you think your child could benefit from attending a social skills or social thinking group, check out some local resources included below.