A Guide to Social Skills

As a parent, you are their primary and most important teacher. You have to teach these skills over and over, practice them with your child constantly and make sure he or she is both old enough and developmentally ready to learn them. And teaching involves more than just telling a child what to do – it also means demonstrating and modeling the skills until the child knows how, when, where and why to use them. 

At Boys Town, we’ve spent 100 years developing the best ways to help kids learn, grow and succeed. Decades of research show that our skill-based teaching approach is highly effective in preparing kids for the real-life situations they’ll face and helping them succeed at home, in school and as a productive adult. It’s an approach we greatly encourage families to adapt with their own children because we know it works. Following instructions. Disagreeing appropriately. Accepting “No” for an answer. Kids need all of these basic skills and many others to become good people, and someday, good employees, good bosses, good parents and good citizens. The game of life is both challenging and rewarding. Teach your children the social skills they need to succeed, and practice, practice, practice!