Community Family Care
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Vision, Mission & Values
    • The Team
    • Our Trustees
    • Testimonials
    • Work For Us
  • Our Services
    • Family Group Conferences >
      • FGC Information for Kids
      • FGC Information for Family & Friends
      • FGC Information for Professionals
    • Working For Families
    • BoA Youth
    • Art Journal Project
    • LifeCoach
    • Story Explorers
    • Family and Child Support for Schools
    • Chill and Chat
  • News And Views
  • Useful Links
  • Contact Us

Parenting Column: Finding ways to encourage new friendships

12/4/2018

 
Picture
P​arenting column by Sasha Hart, family care manager at Community Family Care, Staunton.
When children struggle to make friendships it can be tough on the whole family.

Whether it’s the lack of invitations to parties or seeing your child sitting alone in the playground, friendship problems can spark huge anxiety for parents.

It is important to remember your child’s limited friendships are only a problem if your child is unhappy.

Some children are perfectly content having just one friend or spending a lot of time on their own.

Here are some tips to help encourage friendships and deal with problems.

Listen
If your child tells you other children won’t let them play or shares other worries about friendships, listen and accept their feelings. Don’t play down their fears. Acknowledge them and guide them towards solutions.

Avoid labelling
Whether your child is having difficulties with friendships due to being quiet and reserved or overly boisterous and controlling, be careful about labelling your child. Labels such as bossy or shy can be very self-fulfilling and may put your child in a role you want to avoid.

Role model
Children learn from watching others so your behaviour can inadvertently influence how your child interacts with other children. If you feel anxious in social situations, you may find your child is also nervous. Try role modelling to demonstrate how to act in social situations. Skills such as holding a conversation and basic social rules like sharing belongings, being considerate and compromising can all be role-modelled in daily life.

Arrange supervised play dates
It can be easy to avoid having friends over if there are problems but this provides little opportunity for children to practise social skills. Try to invite friends who may help boost skills and supervise play to keep things on track.

Praise positive behaviour
Offer lots of descriptive praise when your child displays social skills you want to encourage, and back these up with rewards if necessary.
Click here to download PDF of this article.

Comments are closed.

    News & Views

    Here's where we'll be posting our own news, as well as industry news. 

    You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

    Categories

    All
    Art Journal Project
    BoA Youth
    CFC In The Press
    CFC News
    Chill & Chat Sessions
    FACSS
    Family Group Conferences
    Get Crafty!
    Health News
    Industry News
    Parenting Column
    Training

    RSS Feed

Picture
People’s Postcode Trust is a grant-giving charity funded entirely by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

Our charity received a £4,000 grant from the Trust to go towards IT equipment and to cover training and recruitment costs for five new sessional Family Support Workers.

www.postcodetrust.org.uk
www.postcodelottery.co.uk
Community Family Care
Unit A Kingsholm Mews
76 Kingsholm Road
Gloucester
GL1 3BD
​

01452 840999
info@communityfamilycare.co.uk
  • Community Family Care is part of Community Foster Care
  • Community Family Care is Investors in People accredited
  • Charity Registration Number: 1084124
  • Company Number: 03719101
Website by lizhawkins.co.uk
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Vision, Mission & Values
    • The Team
    • Our Trustees
    • Testimonials
    • Work For Us
  • Our Services
    • Family Group Conferences >
      • FGC Information for Kids
      • FGC Information for Family & Friends
      • FGC Information for Professionals
    • Working For Families
    • BoA Youth
    • Art Journal Project
    • LifeCoach
    • Story Explorers
    • Family and Child Support for Schools
    • Chill and Chat
  • News And Views
  • Useful Links
  • Contact Us