Friendships are vital for building confidence and self-esteem, and deflecting bullying and negative peer pressure. For many kids, making friends comes easily — but for others, it may be more challenging.
To kickstart the process, you can help your child hone in on their listening and communicating skills, which will encourage them to strike up a conversation with others.
For example, you can do some role playing and have your child pretend they’re meeting a new friend at school:
Challenge your child to come up with questions they can ask others
Help them read and understand certain social cues
Identify invitations and rejections
Build connections with others who share similar interests
For its 100th anniversary, Scholastic spoke with experts to identify a set of tips, articles, and books that make starting a conversation with your child about making friends easier. These resources are part of a broader initiative, called the Scholastic Bookshelf, created for Instagram to raise awareness around contemporary issues affecting children today.
Whether your child reads them with you or on their own, the following books and articles will give them a sense of the power of friendship and offer teachable moments on how to be a good friend.
