Social skills training: Interacting with other people is an inevitable element of the modern world. But, how can children who spend most of their time using smartphones, meaningfully engage with people in the real world?
According to a study by verywellfamily.com, social skills can reduce stress in children who are in daycare settings. It is an undeniable fact that effective social skills play a very crucial role in the functioning of the society that we live in. It is because strong social skills allow children to have better relationships with their peers.
Before we discuss any more benefits of social skills training, let’s go through the basics. The real question is, what are social skills?
Social skills allow you to interact and communicate with others effectively through verbal and non-verbal means of communication. It enables the exchange of ideas and listening to what the other person has to say.
Children play a significant part in shaping the future of society. Therefore it is imperative to help them develop effective social skills. Here are the top 6 benefits of learning social skills in schools:
Allows understanding of one’s emotions
Child mental health expert, Shahana Knight, shared her insights which revealed that recognizing one’s emotions, and being able to manage them is one of the essential skills in life. It is because if you’re good at noticing your feelings, you can calm yourself at the right time, and adjust your behavior
It allows you to have healthy relationships and manage setbacks proactively. Other than this, negative emotions can stimulate negative thoughts, but if you have the right set of social skills, you’d have the power to change those thoughts, and alter your perceptions for positive living.
Therefore, teaching effective social skills to students at school helps them identify their emotions better, thus allowing them to navigate through tough situations successfully.
Not sure how to instill self-awareness in young students?
You can do so by making students practice mediation at school to make them feel more connected to their inner selves. Apart from this, you can also encourage them to say positive affirmations, like ‘I’m in charge of my future’ to combat any negativities or stress.
Enhances social awareness
In life, we come across different people, belonging to varied cultures and backgrounds. It is crucial to possess social awareness if we want to interact with them meaningfully. Social awareness allows you to understand and respond to other people’s needs.
This is why social awareness is an indispensable element of a child’s education, as students with good social sense can recognize the available resources, and utilize them to address the evolving needs of the society.
Besides this, being socially aware teaches students the art of communication, negotiation, social responsibility, and professionalism. This, in turn, helps them in the professional world.
So if you’re planning to get your child admitted into a school, ensure that the institution focuses on social impact along with quality education to help polish your child’s social skills.
Facilitates in relationship building
Relationships aren’t a thing of personal life anymore. They also play a vital role in your professional and social life. When you establish relationships according to shared interests and goals, your chances of making the relationship work increases.
It is the same for both personal and professional relations. People tend to like working on projects with individuals with whom they have good terms. Moreover, if your partner shares the same interest as you, it helps foster life-long understanding.
As a successful business or corporate life is heavily dependent on strong relationships, schools need to create conducive learning environment that helps students build working relationships.
To help create valuable relationships with peers, many educational institutions conduct team-building and engagement activities regularly.
Improves communication skills
Quality education indeed plays a major role in impacting the well-being of a student and ensuring a successful future. However, there’s more to it. Communication skills, along with education, play a key role in shaping the personality of an individual.
According to a survey conducted by D.B. Curtis, and presented at the Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication Association, the most valued skills in the ‘contemporary job market’ are communication skills. Hence, the best skill that you can invest in is effective communication.
Nevertheless, while learning communication skills, it is important to pay attention to non-verbal cues as well. It is because, while working on communication skills, many people focus on spoken words and tone of voice only.
However, if you want to be good communicator, you need to work on non-verbal gestures and signals as well.
Ensures better career prospects
Research called, ‘The growing importance of skills in the labor market’ conducted by Deming revealed that between 1980 & 2012, jobs requiring high levels of social interaction grew by around 12 percent as share of the U.S. labor force.
This means that the highly competitive labor market of today is increasingly rewarding social skills training. It is because human interactions and team-based jobs are on the rise in the market.
So, for your child to excel in the future, you need to choose the school wisely. Schools are now coming up with a new curriculum and group activities to improve social and communication skills among children.
For instance, recently a friend of mine, who is based in Los Gatos, CA, told me about the introduction of social impact education in Los Gatos’ schools. The idea behind the social impact education is to appraise children of their worth and enable them to go beyond themselves to make an impact in society.
Improves overall satisfaction and happiness
Needless to say, that good interpersonal relationships have the power to unlock many personal and career-related doors. Not only it enhances the quality of life, but have a positive impact on overall satisfaction level.
The ability to express ideas confidently in a meeting, or on a personal level will help boost your self-esteem and will make the future prospects of your kids brighter.
Final word
As per the research published in the American Journal of Public Health, a child’s social and emotional skills in kindergarten are more likely to be the leading predictors of success in adulthood.
In a nutshell, teaching social skills at schools ensure that children are getting ready for healthier interactions in their personal and professional lives.
Displaying good etiquettes, communicating well, and taking others’ opinions into accounts are some of the most important social skills training that help children grow into professionals.
