Social Skills

Social skills help us engage, interact, and build relationships with other people, and they are necessary in order to thrive in school, at home, and at work. That’s why it’s critical to start building these skills in children, starting as early as kindergarten and throughout elementary school. But what do we mean when we say “interpersonal skills?”

Social skills include:

1. Communication: Includes verbal communication, or what you say and how you say it, and nonverbal communication, such as body posture, facial expression, and eye contact.

2. Cooperation: Working together with others as a team to accomplish a goal.

3. Empathy: The ability to identify and understand other people’s emotions.

4. Emotion Regulation: The ability to identify your feelings and manage them appropriately.

5. Impulse Control: The ability to control your behaviors by considering short- and long-term consequences.

6. Social Initiation: Making and keeping relationships by knowing when and how to work or play with others.

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