Activities for Children's Emotional and Social Development
Children learn social and emotional skills in a variety of ways. Most children have short attention spans, enjoy being physically active and learn through a variety of activities. It is important to choose activities that are both fun and educational in order to enhance their emotional development.
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Physical Activities
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Children develop socially and emotionally through physical activities.
According to the American Heart Association, physical exercise has lifelong benefits for children. It is good for their hearts, both physically and metaphorically. Children who exercise regularly tend to have more self-confidence and self-esteem. They also are able to handle negative emotions better, perhaps because of having a physical outlet for these feelings.
Parents sometimes associate physical exercise with enrolling their children in sports teams. If your child shows an interest and ability for team sports, this is an excellent option.
Team sports teaches children to cooperate with others in order to reach shared goals and to practice good sportsmanship.
What if your child does not like team sports? In that case, there are still a wide range of physical activities that can contribute to their social and emotional development. Solitary activities teach children to challenge themselves, cope with failure and focus on goals. Some such activities include soccer challenges, in which children challenge themselves to kick the ball into the goal a certain number of times within a time limit; swimming challenges in which they race the clock to see how many laps they can complete; and running challenges where they attempt to run a certain distance within a few minutes. All of these activities can also be converted into competitions with other children.
Hobbies
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By encouraging hobbies, parents help their children learn to socialize with others who have similar interests, keep themselves entertained, and learn about new things that interest them. Children who engage in hobbies have higher self-esteem and suffer from less loneliness and depression.
There are a wide range of hobbies that parents can encourage their children to engage in. It is best to start with the child's current interests, which often can be built into hobbies.
Typical children's hobbies include: reading and writing; playing a musical instrument or listening to music; and collecting baseball cards, stamps or other objects of interest.
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Arts and Crafts
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Doing arts and crafts projects increases children's self-esteem and creativity. Children need the opportunity to express themselves; this helps increase their self-confidence as well as providing them with an outlet for expressing negative emotions. Arts and crafts projects help encourage creativity and imagination, which give children the confidence to solve problems independently. Finally, group art projects can become a social activity. Children working on art projects together develop sharing skills, learn to appreciate each others' abilities and work together cooperatively.
Some art projects children may enjoy include: making jewelry by stringing beads, making collages, painting and drawing.
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References
- Photo Credit children image by Renata Osinska from Fotolia.com
