Practicing Skills
To acquire a skill, children need to practice it. Practicing works best when it is fun and rewarding.
Practicing through demonstration
Children usually get most pleasure out of practicing skills when they’re able to show you how good they are at doing something. Use this natural way of improving skills and ask them to show you over and over again how skillful they are: “Show me again how well you can do that… (for example put on your clothes quickly; stay calm when someone says something nasty to you; return to your seat quietly… etc.)”.
If you feel that your child is spending too much time playing video games or chatting with friends on the net, and your attempts to limit the child’s screen time fail, you may consider using a strategy based on Kids’Skills.
Practicing by playing games
Another way children can practice skills is to play a game in which they take the role of dealing successfully with a challenging situation. Their performance can be made into a video, and viewing the video will support their learning. For example, if your child is learning the skill of feeling proud of what they can do, shoot a video in which they proudly presents an artwork or something else they have made to the camera.
Practicing using role-play
Children enjoy learning skills via role-play. “Let’s play a game where you are in school and I’m your teacher…” “This flowerpot right here is the pupil who has just been bullying you…” “Suppose I play your father, and you play yourself. Would that be a good idea?” It’s always possible to find a form of role-play that allows children to practice the skills they are learning.
Practicing with puppets
When children are small, it’s often a good idea to play a game with them in which you imagine that their teddy (or other soft toy) happens to have exactly the same problem as they do. Work together to discover which skill their toy needs to learn in order to overcome the problem, and what would be a good way of learning it. This is a non-threatening way of helping children realize they can also overcome problems by learning new skills.
This article is owned by: Kids’Skills http://www.kidsskillsapp.com/
