Your baby will need a whole new set of social skills as a child. You’ve already built a good foundation for social interaction with your baby. You’ve smiled, laughed, talked, played and sung together. Continue to do all that with your toddler.
It’s important to maintain good parent-child communication.
In addition, you can step up their communication level. It’s time for manners, friendships, refined speech, music-making and learning about strangers. How can you boost your toddler’s social skills to fit their age?
It’s time for your toddler to learn some new social skills.
By talking, laughing and smiling when interacting with your baby, you instilled a positive attitude about life. Now let’s introduce manners to your toddler. Communicating with others means learning to be polite and considerate.
Always use good manners with your toddler.
They will return the favour naturally. Be sure to gently remind them when they slip up. To get them back on track, try phrases like, “How do we ask for things?” or “What do we say when someone does something nice for us?”
Refined speech development begins in the toddler years.
As always, the best teacher is an example. Take care to speak gently, without anger to your child. Avoid baby talk, which encourages mispronunciation. Try to stay away from words like “binkie” and “blankey.” Use the proper names for things and people. Your toddler will learn to do the same. If your toddler is still using a dummy, take it away. Dummies at this age can hinder speech development. Speech and Language Therapists recommend that children over 12 months of age do not use a dummy and gradually get rid of it between 6-12 months old. If you choose to give your baby a dummy for up to 12 months, try to only use it at sleep time.
It’s time for your toddler to start making music.
What does music have to do with social skills? Just about everything. Think of the way songs inspire and move us. Music is the essence of communication.
Let your toddler bang on pots and pans. Buy a toy xylophone, flute or guitar. Play and sing music together. Teach your toddler the ABC song. Remember, reading and writing are very useful social skills. It’s time to prepare your child for learning. Without a common language where would our social skills be?
Your toddler needs friends to properly develop their social skills.
Without friends, toddlers have no one to practice communication with but you. These first relationships teach toddlers a variety of social skills to use throughout life.
This is the age where concepts like sharing and giving come into play. Make play dates with your friend’s children. Take your toddler to the playground or another kid-friendly venue to make new friends. Do whatever you can to see that your toddler makes friends of all kinds. Each one will teach a different set of social skills.
The concept of strangers is something your toddler should begin to be aware of.
Don’t frighten your toddler with scary stories about strangers. Explain to them that some strangers are very nice, while others may not be so friendly.
Teach your toddler to interact with only those people you approve of. It’s healthy for your toddler to display a certain amount of shyness where strangers are concerned. It will keep them from encountering dangerous people as they learn valuable social skills.