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Top parenting stories this week
Helping Your Toddler Make Friends
How to teach your toddler to forge healthy first friendships
by: Sydney Loney
In This Article
Toddler Friendships
- Even infants interact, so it’s important to expose your child to other kids early on.
- Check out libraries or community centers for mom and baby programs or drop-ins.
- The 18-month mark is typically when altercations begin to arise in your toddler’s early friendships.
- Teach your toddler to have a voice and to communicate instead of just rescuing her from problems during play dates.
- Hitting and other aggressive behavior is often a sign that toddlers are trying to connect–the best thing is to redirect them toward cooperative play, such as building a fort together.
tudies show that children with friends have a greater sense of well-being, higher self-esteem and fewer social problems than children without friends. Here’s how to help your child find healthy, fulfilling friendships.
The importance of play dates
“Children learn a lot just from watching, so it’s important to start exposing them to other children right from the get go,” says Alyson Schafer, a psychotherapist and author of Breaking the Good Mom Myth. “If your child doesn’t have siblings, make a point of getting out into groups with other moms and babies, which is also good for your own mental health.” Even infants interact, Schafer says, so getting together with other new moms early on can have important social benefits for both you and your baby.
- Join a moms group in your community or start your own.
- Visit online parenting sites, many of which have tools you can use to connect with other moms in your area, such as justplaydates.ca.
- Check out libraries or community centers for mom and baby programs or drop-ins.
- Hang out in local parks where moms with kids of all ages congregate.
- Set up “play dates” with neighborhood moms who have kids close to yours in age.
