Unique is a perfect term to describe every child’s development and skills. We are all born different with various reflexes that allow us to maneuver through infant and toddler stages. However, some behavioral and social skills require learning to trigger the inner personality. To ease the social-interaction phase parents/guardians can teach, and use fun playful toddler activities to boost social skills

Social skills are a mandatory requirement that allows for easy relationship development. It is a crucial skill as it helps toddlers and adults understand and develop healthy relationships with others.  However, the aspect takes time and practice, especially for toddlers who need parental guidance.

Toddlers with easy social skills are friendly and associate well with family and visitors. That is quite easy and lucky for the particular parent. However, some kids take time to socialize and understand their environment. Note, this doesn’t make them stubborn or late in development. They are just unique in their own development style and learn at individual’s pace.

What are social skills?

Social skills are well-educated talents and everyday practices that allow people to interact and communicate effectively with others.  The skills are pretty easy but can cause embarrassment or fights if one party doesn’t display the skills.

• Making friends
•  Communication
• Regulating feelings and behaviors
• Resolving interpersonal conflicts
• Listening
• Sharing

Introducing Fun Playful toddler activities to boost social skills

We all want a well-behaved child who can relate easily with people and can display self-confidence.  To achieve the characters a bit of work and tuning should be done. Actually, most social and behavioral skills are developed through seeing and imitation.  

Parents can focus on child-friendly fun activities and games for socialization. These are incredible ways for toddlers to learn how to behave around other people and to have self-confidence. Social skills are the core pillar for healthy relationships, happiness, and mental health.

The playful activities help strengthen your child’s relationships and deepen their understanding of emotions and empathy.  For parents, the vital thing is finding proper games and exercises that align with their toddler’s interests developmental abilities, and needs.

Social skills activities for toddler’s

There are multiple activities and games that help in child development and strengthen toddlers' social skill development. Choose what best suits your toddler or older child to enhance their social skills.

• cooking and pretend-cooking

Cooking, pretend cooking, and serving are great play scenarios for toddlers. This activity is open to all genders as boys can also love cooking or serving. It's a great way to help kids develop elements of sensory play, social aspects, patience, mathematical concepts, home safety, and more.

•  Hide and seek games.

It's an old play that has been there for generations. However, it never grows old, it's always fun and helps in resilience. Hide-and-seek games are a children's favorite. They get the chance to hide and let their friends seek them out. The game promotes collaboration from the hiders, calculation, communication, and patience.  If you are alone with your kid, you can make the game fun by either hiding or seeking. One can also hide the child’s favorite stuffed animal or toy and allow them to find it. You can also assist the child in looking together and make it a surprise when you see the hidden object.

• Different Play board games

From complex to simple one can easily find an affordable, and age-specific board game. Playing board games is not only for fun but also increases their learning-mental capacity. Board games need turn-taking and proper thinking. It's a double achievement as the toddler or any other aged child will learn different aspects like turn-taking, shapes, colors, and sharing.

• Movement activities such as running, jumping, and climbing

Allowing your toddlers to run, jump, climb, or even swing in a safe place is essential for their bodies. Social skills come along with self-confidence which builds through resilience and confidence to perform activities that are common to others. The movements enable them to increase their confidence especially when playing with fellow children. It also helps in resilience through risk-taking; when they climb up, they keep in mind that they can accidentally fall.

• Dancing and singing

Toddlers come up with funny but incredible moves. It's almost like involuntary moves when the music turns on. From a personal experience, my baby makes multiple moves in fast sensations sometimes outdoing the beats.  Toddlers love music, singing (with no particular words), and dancing. The musical activities help children develop language, listening, and mathematical concepts like counting. It’s a fantastic way of building rhythm at an early stage, and gaining strength and flexibility. During the dance, it's easy for the kids to imitate moves, appreciate their friends, and also communicate.

• Drawing and painting

In the toddler stage, we don't expect much of perfect, maybe scribbling and messy painting. However, that mess is what parents should encourage to enhance fine motor, sensory, and mental development. During drawing and painting, most toddlers tend to be bubbly trying to express their drawing and painting in words.

Parents need to show their concern and appreciate every effort. This builds the child's confidence and increases their self-expression abilities and pre-writing skills. The activity also helps in boosting social skills if done in a group or with family members.

• Sand play

Just like painting, kids learn multiple skills that contribute to their social and developmental growth. They are able to express their thoughts through simple activities like measuring sand, scooping, and feeling the soil. Toddlers also develop self-confidence, physical development, teamwork, working, and sharing. This is a great opportunity for communication and socialization when done with other family members or children.

• Storytime

As a parent/guardian, look for entertaining storybooks for kids and read to your kid (s). For effective results always, point to the objects, animals, or plants found on the pages, for easy understanding. Emphasize on pictures promoting social skills like animals working together or children playing to create a mind image of togetherness. Storytime promotes bonding,  language skills, and enhances imagination and visual development in children.

• Attending community events

Community activities are the best place to meet and make friends. Let your children understand the importance of community events and why they need to participate. Be a role model by being positive about upcoming events and preparing beforehand for your kids to have the same urge to wait and participate.  This will boost your child’s interaction skills and instill a friendly aspect about other people.  Parents can check out for the following activities.

• Swimming
• Sports
• Zoo and park visits
• Libraries and charity events

Benefits of social skills activities for toddler’s

All the said activities are met to offer different developmental, social, and behavioral skills. They provide significant benefits such as:

• Building a child’s sense of belonging
• They help improve self-confidence allowing your child to participate in different activities.
• It’s a fascinating way to improve happiness and fun for the kids
• The activities eliminate stress for children regardless of the home situation.
• Social skills activities enhance physical health and well-being
• Helps toddlers learn to lead, follow, and be patient.
• Playful toddler activities to boost social skills teach toddlers to have good cooperation and how to take turns
• Through play, children understand their own culture and values. They also understand to respect other people without discriminating against their race or abilities.
• Social skills activities for toddlers provide a broad base for social language skills and physical and mental development.

Conclusion

Social skills activities help toddlers develop critical abilities like cooperation, empathy, and communication, reduce stress and anxiety. Parents can help improve social skills through simple activities that will stick in the long run.