7 Social Skills Activities for Kids to Ensure Their Holistic Development

social skills activities for kids

Have you come across children who stare at the floor while talking or children who do not get along with people or even with kids of their age? These are the children who lack social skills.

Social skills for kids are extremely critical since they help them grow up to be confident, congenial, and successful adults.

At PlanetSpark, we have observed children and their growth as they learn important human skills to create a list of some sure-fire ways to teach children social skills. It includes social skill games for kids and effortless activities at home, each explained with how it can contribute to your child’s personality development. Read on.

Staring Contest

Making eye contact while speaking is a critical social skill for kids, making some children uncomfortable. A staring contest can undoubtedly help. Start small by pasting a funny sticker on your forehead to help them look in the right direction. Once they are comfortable, you can do staring contests. Gradually, you can encourage conversation while they make eye contact.

You can also arrange virtual playtime for your child, which means video calls with friends and family. Having to look at the screen will help them make eye contact with the other person and build a habit.
Roll the Ball

Roll the ball is a perfect example of social activities for kids who are shy. It is an act of reciprocity that encourages children to see the other person as a playmate. And what’s better than a playful activity to make kids engage with new people?

When new people come over, ask them to play roll the ball with your child or any other game that involves taking turns. It will get them interacting with new people. Moreover, turn-taking games also help kids learn how to wait their turn, which will make them more patient with other kids at school or in the playground.
Emotion Charades

Emotion charade is one of the most helpful social skills activities for kids that helps them learn how to read expressions and interact accordingly. Instead of having them guess a movie or cartoon, have them guess an emotion. You can initially give them emotional prompts to enact through their facial expressions and gradually move onto emotional expression through body language. For example, to express the emotion ‘sad,’ they can portray a kid sitting on the bench alone while others play.
Wake Up the Frogs

Wake Up the Frogs is a fantastic social skill game for kids to enhance their collaboration skills. It can be played among two or more kids.

Lay a blue blanket and place toy frogs on artificial lily pads. Then, the kids must walk around the pond and wake up the frogs by singing the wake-up song while music plays in the background.

Researchers found that kids who played this game were more cooperative and willing to help other kids.
Treasure Hunt

Treasure hunt is not only a fun activity, but it also helps kids learn social skills, such as:
- Critical thinking
- Creative problem-solving
- Teamwork
Write clues on pieces of paper and hide them. Each clue must lead to the next one and eventually to the treasure. You can either play it with your child or invite other kids over to help them learn teamwork.
Storytelling

Storytelling is an interactive activity that can dramatically boost social skills, such as:
- Public-speaking
- Presentation skills
- Communication skills
Have your kid read their favourite story multiple times so that they fully understand it. And then dress them up as one of the characters from the story and encourage them to narrate the story with physical actions. To make the process more appealing to them, you can also help them make colourful props for the story.
Team Athletics

Team athletics can be great social skills activities for kids to help them learn:
- Sportsmanship
- Leadership skills
- Conflict resolution
However, you cannot expect kids to learn these skills on their own. Use the opportunity to teach your child how to resolve conflicts between players, respect everyone’s opinion in strategy-building, be a good sport, and help the team. Once the game is over, reward good behaviour and give proper feedback if needed.