Learning don’t only thrives within walls of your home. Yes, early relationship starts at home, but there’s so much your tot can learn outside; when he mingles with other tots or even just by watching them. Everything can be a social opportunity for your toddler -- you just have to guide them all the way. Guiding, though, doesn’t mean you interrupt and push your toddler to do this and that. Most of the time he finds it out on his own. Some child takes pleasure watching, some interacting. You just have to watch and learn.
One old school way of playing and interacting with other kids is through “tin can phone”. I bet you played this game way back when you were a toddler , too. A tin can phone was used as a form of communication using two tin cans or plastic cups attached by a string in the middle. “One person would speak into one side where the other person would hold it up to their ear. The vibrations would travel and therefore the individuals could communicate”
Beyond this mundane and not-so-flashy type of game, your tot can benefit from it especially on the area of “communication”. The more your child talk, the more she learns. She learns the foundation of communication which is to listen. She will also learn to find ways to respond and be heard. Overtime, she will learn to share, take turns, and solve conflicts. And most of all, she will somehow understand, on her level of thinking, what is it like to have a friend and to be a friend to someone.
Here are other communication games that you and your tot and her playmates can do from author Eileen Bailey: Telling Stories. Cut out pictures from magazines and place them in a box. Take turns pulling out one picture and tell a story of what you think is happening in the picture. Play Feeling Charades. Make up cards with as many different feelings as you can think of: Happy, Sad, Angry, Excited, Bored, Scared, Nervous, Unhappy, Tired, Pleased, Interested, Uninterested, etc. Play Action Charades: Make up cards with as many action words as you can think of: Run, Jump, Walk, Hopped, Ran, Skipped, Hurried, Tiptoed, Stir, Stretched, Rolled.
Use puppets. Sometimes children find it easier to talk if they are doing it through a puppet. Have a variety of puppets, some happy, some sad, some silly. Have your child use the appropriate puppet to tell you about their day. Role Playing. Make up cards with different activities. This can be geared toward whatever age or situation your child is currently going through. Finish the Story. Use pictures from magazines and tell a short story about the picture. Stop the story so that your child can continue it and make their own ending. A few years down the road, your child will discover that friendship is a process of handling emotions and practicing new skills. And the interactions she has had with you or with her childhood friends through communication and play will have provided the foundation for successful, long-lasting friendships.
Source: Games to Help Teach Children Communication Skills. http://www.healthcentral.com/adhd/c/1443/61249/children-communication/
