When your child isn't making friends in school

Psychologist Laura Markham, PhD, shares advice for parents on the best way to help your child to make friends and develop social skills and emotional regulation
How To Help Your Child Who Isn't Making Friends In School
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When your child isn't making friends in school

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Some children came to make friends so easily others not so easily. And sometime we hear from the child or from the teacher that our child is not making friends at school. What can we do to help? If you notice from an early age that your child is not making friends, you can intervene, you can set up play dates, you can help your child specific skills like how to join a group. But by the time that your child is in elementary school, they should have some friends. They don't have to be popular, have a long list. They should be able to make a friend in school. If they aren't, talk to the teacher, see if the teacher knows why is the child is not making friends. Talk to your child, see if you can figure it out and you may well need to get a professional help. There are great groups for kids nowadays that help kids develop social skills and emotional regulation. So, if they are being bossy, if they are bragging, if they are exploding, they can get those things under control so they can actually have a good social life and connect to other people their own age.

Psychologist Laura Markham, PhD, shares advice for parents on the best way to help your child to make friends and develop social skills and emotional regulation

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Laura Markham, PhD

Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Laura Markham is the author of Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids: How to Stop Yelling and Start Connecting. She earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Columbia University and has worked as a parenting coach with countless parents across the English-speaking world, both in person and via phone. You can find Dr. Laura online at AhaParenting.com, the website of Aha! Moments for parents of kids from birth through the teen years, where you can sign up for her free daily inspiration email.  Dr. Laura lives in New York with her husband and her kids, who are now 17 and 21.

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