Helping Your Shy Child Make Friends When They Start Preschool

Education & Development Blog

If you have a child who will be going to preschool in the near future, and they are not used to spending time with other children, you may be a bit worried about how they will react when they start spending their days with classmates. A shy child may find it difficult to open up to others. Here are some tips you can use to help your offspring in gaining confidence so they feel better about speaking and playing with others in their class.

Do a Bit of Role-Playing at Home to Try Different Scenarios

To prepare your child for confrontations with other children, practicing at home may be helpful. Inform your child that giving another child a compliment is always a great way to start a conversation. Teach your child to make eye contact with someone as they give a compliment about a piece of clothing or an art project they completed. Construct pretend scenarios where you play a child in class to see how your child responds to different situations. Encourage your child to be kind by offering to help with a problem that another child may have as well.

Consider Signing up for Extracurricular Activities before Preschool Begins

Signing up for an activity in the community where other children are bound to be participating is a great way to start interaction between your child and others. Look for a story time hour at a local library, enroll your child in a fun sport where group play is incorporated in the schedule, or look for a club for your child to join. These types of activities will require that your child spend time with others of their age, helping to familiarize themselves with the process of talking to others in short stints.

Invite Others from Class to a Get-Together with Parents Involved

Ask your child's preschool administrator if you could have a list of names and addresses of others who will be in your child's class. Use this information to send invitations to each family to get together in a relaxed setting before classes begin. Hosting an event at a local park is one way to achieve this task. If personal information is not to be given out for security reasons, ask the school to get involved by hosting a get-together where parents and students can meet each other before classroom times begin. With parents present, children will be more apt to play with others as they will have a sense of security during this time.

For more ways to get your child ready for preschool, talk to a child care program like Wooden Shoe Pre-School & Pre-Kindergarten.

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22 November 2016

Discussing Child Development

Hello, my name is Melony. Welcome. I am here to talk to you about child development. As a young adult, I studied child development in my elective courses. I wanted to learn about the factors that help kids grow into functional adults. I studied all of the different ways this process can go wrong. Although I cannot use this info for my career, I am glad I studied this topic in great detail while in school. I will use this site to help others learn all they can about healthy child development. Please feel free to visit my site anytime to learn more.