How to Make Friends and Influence People (For Kids) - Teach Your Child How to Make Friends and be Popular: Positive Parenting, #3

By Katrina Kahler and Karen Campbell

A truly happy child always has at least one friend. For some children making and keeping friends comes naturally, but for others, friendship problems can make them feel very sad and lonely. As adults, most of us assume that children know how to approach and talk to friends, but this isn't always the case. How To Win Friends And Influence People for Kids shows you how to teach these skills to your child. Once they have started to master these interpersonal skills, they will naturally attract friends.

This wonderful book also gives your child information and skills to practise so that they can be more popular and a leader among their peers. This is not only a great skill to have at school...but the benefits will continue to add to a successful and happy time all through their lives.

Karen Campbell and Katrina Kahler are two highly experienced teachers who have shown hundreds of children how to make friends, become more popular and maintain positive and happy relationships.

This book is part of a series called 'The Parenting Trap: How To Avoid The Pitfalls and Raise A Child You Can Be Proud Of'. The authors have aimed their books at the parents of children aged from birth through to the early teenage years. Click on the book image above and have a look inside, the clickable table of contents will give you an insight into the valuable information contained in this potentially life-changing book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Katrina Kahler
• Release date: Aug 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201153144

Book preview

Introduction

Welcome to our book on how to make friends, keep them, be popular, and be a good leader. A happy child is one who has some friends. It doesn’t matter how smart they are, how good at sport, how rich their family is...if a child doesn’t have friends, they will feel left out and sad. The good news is that you, as a parent, can help your child to develop friendships. There are many skills that you can teach to your child. Knowing how to approach people, talk to them and maintain relationships will not only help your child to be happier at school, but this is a skill that will serve them for the rest of their life.

Can you imagine attending school for seven years and never having a close friend? You’re probably thinking, No, that’s not possible. It doesn’t happen very often, but it does happen. We’ve taught a number of children who have gone right through primary/elementary school without a friend.

I’m going to tell you a story about Joel (not his real name), who came to our class in year 6. On the second day of school, we asked the kids to find a partner. He just stood there and frowned. We partnered him up with another child. During eating time, he sat on the edge of the group and didn’t interact with anyone.

This separation from other children continued for the whole week. We called him over when the other students had left for lunch and asked how he was feeling about school. He told us he liked us teaching him, but he hated group and partner work. When we asked why, he replied that he didn’t have any friends. Then tears started rolling down his eyes, and he said that he had never had a friend all the way through school. His self-esteem was so low. He felt that nobody wanted to be his friend or even talk to him.

We watched his interactions for the next week and identified things that he was doing that discouraged positive connections with his classmates. He wasn’t making eye contact when speaking, he didn’t follow through with conversations, his body stance was closed, and he looked defeated before he even sat near his classmates.

Joel needed a confidence boost and some social skilling. We discovered that he was very talented on the computer. So he became our right-hand man, fixing problems, setting up the data projector, and helping his peers when they experienced difficulties on the computer. We had to show him how to help by talking and not taking over, as he could be quite bossy. We practiced this skill with him helping us.

As a whole class, we did some social skilling, talking about friends, how to make them, and keep them. We demonstrated conversation and listening skills and how to approach