Skip to content

How to help kids make friends: 10 Evidence-based tips

In Parenting Science, an article from Gwen Dewar, Ph.D, 2009-2013, How do kids make friends? Newborn babies are born ready to socialize, and no wonder: Throughout our evolutionary history, the ability to make friends has been a crucial survival skill.

But that doesn’t mean that marvelous good manners and irresistible charm will “just emerge” during your child’s development.

Decades of research suggests that parents play a big role in teaching children how to make friends. The most popular kids are prosocial—i.e., caring, sharing, and helpful. They also have strong verbal skills and know how to keep their selfish or aggressive impulses in check. Most of all, popular kids are good at interpersonal skills: empathy, perspective-taking, and moral reasoning (Slaughter et al 2002; Dekovic and Gerris 1994).

So it seems that making friends depends on skills that kids can develop with practice:

• conversational skills

• interpersonal skills

• emotional self-control

Here are some research-based tips to help kids make friends … to read more click here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *