Is Social Skills Important?
By Tamesha Bland, BCBA, LBA
So what’s all the fuss about social skills this summer?
Well…
School is about to start and for many kids, it may be their first time in a school building or may even be their first time in-person in a school setting since COVID-19 made its presence known to the world. With that comes lots of challenges of its own, kids having to re-learn how to interact with each other or remembering what it was like to be social. For many kids, they were not given the chance to experience school without the added stress of the Coronavirus and all the restrictions and regulations that comes with it, making it harder to be safe and social in a school and community setting.
That’s where social skills comes in, learning and practicing social skill improves students’ positive behavior and reduces negative behaviors but most importantly it can significantly improve student’s:
· Social-emotional skills
· Academic Achievement
· Conduct in school, at home, and in the community
· Attitudes about self and others
· Social interactions
While also decreasing their levels of emotional distress.
Lack of appropriate social skills can often impact a child’s interaction with others making school, community outings and other activities challenging. Using appropriate social skills does not come easy to everyone, in regards to children AND adults. As parents, caregivers and educators we must do what we can during these times to give our children the best that we can with what we have and can offer.
I’m a parent, caregiver and educator too and I am going to be honest here, I have my fears of sending my little ones to school, I even pulled them out of school and home schooled them for the first half of the school year when COVID-19 started and school districts were talking about sending kids back to school. I wasn’t ready yet. And that’s okay. If I’m stressed about the safeties of returning to school, I would have stressed my kids about it too and that would not have been great for my kids in regards to social interactions they could have missed out on. Everyone must do what they think is the best for their child. But this is not about me. It’s time to get our children ready for school and community engagement. What a better time to do so than now, there are so many benefits to working on social skills.
If your child has a deficit in social skills, they can learn to develop meaningful relationships and minimize stigmatizing behaviors by interacting with others and working on social skills intentionally. The benefits of working on social skills extend to reducing stress, there’s a study (Larose MP et al, 2019) that found that good social skills may reduce stress in children in daycare settings.
Not having the social skills to interact with others most likely compounds stress. For instance, being away from family places stress on children. When they are unable to communicate effectively with others, it can get worse.
Social skills are a set of skills that must continuously be refined as your child gets older. Social skills can be learned and strengthened with effort and practice. Social skills can also be linked to greater success in school and better relationships with peers.
What’s great to know is that social skills can be taught, rather your child is verbal or non-verbal or your child is 2 or 25 years old. It’s never too soon or too late to start showing your child how to get along and interact with others. You can start with the basic social skills first and then continue to work on sharpening those skills over time.
I’ve put together a fun little social skills challenge that puts a fun twist to practicing social skills daily in the comfort of your home. If you follow us on Instagram or Facebook, we share what the challenge is each day in July, but you can download your own free copy HERE
Larose MP, Ouellet-morin I, Vitaro F, et al. Impact of a social skills program on children's stress: a cluster randomized trial. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2019;104:115-121. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.02.017