We all love it when our children have friends to play with. But there’s way more to children socialising than simply entertaining themselves. Socialising is actually crucial to a child’s physical and emotional development and well-being. In fact, it’s vital that our children socialise at every stage of life. In this article, we’ll look at all the benefits of children socialising with each other, and learn about what they’re learning while they’re playing together.
What is socialising?
Put simply, socialising refers to our little ones interacting with others. When it comes to our children’s social development, it’s essential that social skills begin to form because they actually impact every stage of your child’s life. A lack of socialising can have significant effects on a child’s mental, physical and emotional wellbeing. In fact, a study found that when children are left alone for an extended period of time, they can become overly anxious and avoidant throughout the rest of their lives. So encouraging those little friendships is a big deal!
There are many ways you can recognise and celebrate socialising, including recognising social milestones from an early age, such as:
- First words
- First steps
- First playdate
- First day at childcare or school
Why is children socialising so important for their development?
Socialising at a young age is important because it helps your child develop the skills needed for healthy development and relationships –
1. Communication skills
Understanding and developing a variety of communication skills will help your child as they go through different stages of their life, such as starting childcare, starting school or engaging in sporting/extracurricular activities. Studies show that socialising also allows kids to communicate with others outside of their immediate family and will even help them understand risk-taking, social cues, and how to listen and understand others. It’s also important to note that every child is unique, so their communication skills may come in many forms, including non-verbal communication, including showing interest in something, hand gestures and facial expressions. So don’t worry if your child is not as chatty as the person next to them, they could be building social skills in other ways.
2. Confidence and independence
Socialising allows kids to build skills that will help them to be confident and autonomous later in life. Through social interactions, children develop their self-esteem and build resilience towards the unknown and, in turn, create connections that make new social interactions less scary. This is a particularly important skill for the first day of school because school can be a big and scary new environment. Developing resilience and confidence also means that your child is more likely to take part in healthy risk-taking, including trying new things like swimming or talking to someone new.
3. Sharing
Socialising encourages children to share and makes them less focused on themselves. Being egocentric is a normal behaviour for young children, particularly for first or only children, because in their minds the world revolves around what they can see instead of what they can’t see or imagine. Socialising encourages them to interact with others, share resources and knowledge and start seeing things from someone else’s point of view. Last but not least is the fact that sharing and socialising helps children make friends – and friends are very important to a child’s emotional and mental well-being, as you’ll see below.
4. Friends
Friends are important for a number of reasons. Interacting with other little ones increases your child’s vocabulary, encourages them to think in different ways, and creates lifelong memories that you and your child will treasure. Friends are a network outside of immediate family that your child can rely on for help and support through crucial stages in their life, such as starting school, playing a new sport or performing at their first recital. It also means they can get excited about important events like birthdays because their friends are there to celebrate and experience those things alongside them.
5. Empathy
Socialising introduces your child to new ideas, new concepts and differences between themselves and others, which helps them to develop empathy. Empathy is an important quality because it is the driving force behind kindness. It’s important to note that socialising is not just about talking – but listening, watching and reacting as well. For example, if a little one were to watch a person help someone who is hurt or stand up to others for someone being mistreated, this would become an important lesson in empathy that could really only be taught by that child having witnessed such a kind act. Children who are empathetic will also be more accepting, open and resilient in the future as they have developed skills to face confrontation, communicate their emotions, and are able to integrate into new environments more easily.
Prioritising children socialising with each other
At Child’s Play, children socialising with each other is not just encouraged but prioritised, which is why we’ve designed our centres in a way that offers them as many opportunities to build these skills as possible. We believe socialising builds strong, caring individuals who are future-ready for the life ahead of them. If you’re curious about our approach to social development or want to explore activities that encourage friendship and growth, check out our curriculum or get in touch with the educators at your local Child’s Play Early Learning Centre.
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