Top 10 Social Skills Your Child Needs to Succeed In Life


How soon your child learns to identify colors, write and read are parameters that judge his/her academic and intelligence quotient. Researchers have now found that 10 basic social skills such as taking turns, being nice and listening are just as important to children’s academic success as the subjects they study. Needless to say, it is important that students should be learning these social skills at school as well at home.
Stephen Elliott, Vanderbilt Peabody education and psychology researcher and co-author of the newly published The Social Skills Improvement System—Classwide Intervention Program, found the following 10 social skills crucial for young learners
1. Listen to others
2. Follow the steps
3. Follow the rules
4. Ignore distractions
5. Ask for help
6. Take turns when you talk
7. Get along with others
8. Stay calm with others
9. Be responsible for your behavior
10. Do nice things for others
The Samsidh MLZS approach to teaching and nurturing social skills
Pre School: Our pre school curriculum revolves around these social skills. Each academic activity that is conducted for pre schoolers has an underlying factor of one or a combination of these social skills to give the children a holistic means of learning from the very beginning.
Every year our teachers are trained to be able to lead the little ones in the correct direction in the prescribed manner.
Middle School: These are the formative years in a child’s personality. Whatever the child has learnt in his/her preschool days is either strengthened or completely undone, based on the guidance he/she receives from home and school. A lot also depends upon the child’s experiences from being a certain kind of a person.
Does always being nice mean that he is having to give up his turn at the playground frequently?
Does breaking the rules lead to instant karma at home and at school?
This means that ideally all children should be taught social skills from pre school so that there is no disparity among their social group when they grow up. Positive social skills must lead to positive experiences for the child who is practicing these skills.
At Samsidh MLZS, Integrity is a core value that we instill in our children from the very beginning. If you notice, Integrity forms the basis for all the social skills listed above.
High School: A time when peers act as influencers for early adult life, what children have learnt in their formative years becomes secondary. Thus, it is important that we as educarers, keep re-enforcing the social skills with more force.
At Samsidh MLZS, our co curricular activities make sure team spirit becomes ingrained at this stage and children understand the value of friends in their life. Even the academic projects throw children from different backgrounds together where they understand to value each other and work together as a team.