Many parents think that a child will just work it out for themselves. However, it is not good enough to immerse a child in a strange place in the hope that they will be able to cope with the situation in front of them. For many, this can be traumatic and can cause them to become withdrawn or to panic. They will say that their child is a loner or is shy, but it can be that the child is overwhelmed and does not know how to cope with the situation.
However, there are some ways in which you can help your child adapt and learn to interact with others.
#1 Ensure That There Is Always a Familiar Face
Nobody likes walking into places filled wall to wall with total strangers, so it is important to realize that your child will not either. Making sure that there is a friendly face either waiting for them or taking a friend along with you will ensure that your child feels more comfortable within their surroundings.
Interacting is much easier to do when there are two friends together, as you will find the more confident one will encourage the other to converse with new friends as well. Of course, as the location becomes more familiar, your child will feel happier and more content in visiting, regardless of whether there is a friend present or not.
#2 Seek Professional Help to Boost Confidence
Undoubtedly, some children require a little more encouragement and support when it comes to interacting with others. This could be due to many things, such as speech impediments, the inability to express themselves, or difficulty in sentence forming among others. The important thing is that speech therapy, for instance, at Physio Inq can happen in the comfort of your own home so that your child will not have the additional stress of being taken somewhere strange.
#3 Teach Your Child About Good Manners
When it comes to being able to build skills like good manners, your child should learn these from the adults around them. However, some children do require some additional lessons, or a prompt now and then. For instance, saying please when they ask for things and thank you when receiving them. However, some children get confused with these manners and think that just because they say please automatically means that they will get what they asked for, or that they do not have to say thank you if they didn’t want the items they were given.
Final Thoughts
You can ease your child into new places or different scenarios by making sure that there is someone that they are friends with going along with them or that they will be meeting someone they know there.
Additionally, to help your child grow in confidence they may require the help of a speech therapist who would be able to help them overcome or cope with any language or speech problems that they may have.
You may find that manners could play a part in why your child feels that they cannot interact with others. This could just be the point of not understanding what is expected of them and so could easily be rectified by you spending time explaining and teaching them about good mannerisms.
