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Fitting In
August 17, 2010 by Lisa Freeman
Posted in•Social Thinking•School Age
The start of school is just around the corner. It’s both an exciting and anxiety provoking time. Renewing old friendships, initiating new friendships, fitting in with the group – these not easy jobs for many of our kids.
Talk to your children about their expectations for the first day of school. Who’s going to be in their class this year? Who do they already have a connection with? Give them the tools to initiate and maintain a conversation. Use their friendship files to help them to recall what they know about their friends so they have something ready to talk about. Go over some questions they can ask their classmates about summer vacation. Reminisce about your family’s summer – where you went, what you did, whom you did it with so they have something to discuss.
Remind them that looking friendly – smiling and saying hi, nodding and waving – helps other people to feel comfortable and to feel that they want to be around us.
Talk about being part of a classroom. Fitting in means that sometimes we need to do what the people around us are doing. Tell them to be a private detective – to be observant and on-the-lookout. Make smart guesses by watching what the teacher and the students are doing. Pick up clues and figure out what they are thinking about by noticing what they are looking at. Do what the group is doing.
We get our children ready for the new school year with new clothes and new school supplies. Help them to get ready for the start of school by helping them to be ‘social thinkers’. Help them get ready to socialize!
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