Supporting Positive Peer Relationships

Learning to make and maintain friendships is a big part of childhood — and it plays an important role in your child’s wellbeing and development. At school, we support students as they build the social and emotional skills needed to navigate peer relationships. As a parent, there are many ways that you can help support your child’s positive friendships:

Discuss how to be a good friend

Having regular conversations about the qualities of a good friend helps children recognise and practise them in everyday situations. Kindness, sharing, listening, and including others are all behaviours that can be modelled and practised at home. By discussing and listening to a range of different views, children and young people can build awareness and understanding of diversity. Creating a home environment where your child feels safe can assist them to talk about how they are feeling.

Practise Social Skills at Home

Encourage children and young people to use effective verbal and non-verbal communication skills while interacting with a range of people in your community. Role-playing common scenarios (like asking to join a game or handling a disagreement) can help children feel more confident and prepared. You can model respectful communication and show how to solve conflicts calmly and kindly.

Encourage Empathy

Encouraging positive behaviour is something you can do with your child at an early age to develop empathy and emotional intelligence. By considering what it might be like to be in someone else’s shoes, they will be more likely to show kindness and compassion towards others. This can then lead them to build strong connections with their peers and, hopefully, meaningful friendships.

When your child talks about a conflict with a friend, help them see the other person’s perspective. Questions like, “How do you think they felt?” or “What could you do next time?” encourage empathy and self-reflection. Create opportunities to include different perspectives – encourage children and young people to explore and appreciate the differences.

Support and guide conflict resolution

Friendship ups and downs are normal, and as your child gets older, they begin to display more intense emotions. It’s tempting to step in, but gently guiding your child to problem-solve for themselves helps them develop independence and resilience. When children resolve their own conflicts, they develop their understanding of other people’s feelings, as well as build their own self-confidence.

Celebrate Healthy Friendships

When your child shows care, patience, or problem-solving in a social setting, celebrate it! These moments reinforce the value of respectful and kind relationships. Encourage play dates with your child outside of school to enable opportunities for your child to connect outside of the school environment.

If your child is finding friendships challenging, please don’t hesitate to reach out. At school, we are here to support students and families with social and emotional learning because every child deserves to feel connected and valued at school.

For more information and tips, please visit:

https://beyou.edu.au/-/media/resources/fact-sheets/pdfs/social-development-fact-sheet.pdf

Leanne Watson

Guidance Officer

Student Wellbeing

Enoggera State School - Thursday and Friday

lwats128@eq.edu.au