Communication is essential to our daily living. We convey messages, meaning, and value to our words and actions. Our children socializing with others is not much different. We want to develop them the best we can to promote success. The following concept is more directed towards the parent, and not as much for the kids. As we speak to different generations, we find those needs change, and we are in the process of deciphering the needs of the newest group. As far as anyone could see these needs, kids would not have developed these concepts, yet.
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Foundational Communication
Our body language makes up 55% of our conversation(1). Your toddler learns non-verbal cues in their development. I would argue that toddlers learn their expression within their first two years of life, and they slowly develop words to express themselves more clearly as they grow. Parenting with these different perspectives takes on more meaning that you want to teach your kids how they best express themselves in a variety of situations.
The means and methods of communication is foundational to development and the structure of how we speak and present ourselves. It is essential to understand how this will work, because the relationships and communication patterns do have a determination of success and personal efficacy. For someone such as myself, I enjoy talking with other people, but I am more personal and introverted as my personality type. It means that I will need to put more effort into teaching my children and
Child Socialization
Child socialization is important to any household; it is a key means to relate with themselves, peers, and those of different age groups. I would argue that fundamental activities are more important to determine correct behaviors and actions, and that experimental social norms are not helpful to model correct behavior and clean speech. The primary socialization stage of child behavior is to understand the how and what of communicating with peers (2) . Other social norms through secondary means can introduce additional concepts, even if it is something that clashes with your worldview.
Socialization is difficult to teach. This is why we purposely seek out different groups, clubs, sports, and community places to interact with others and allow out children to learn how they communicate with other people. This work is one of the most challenging aspects of parenting. The work a parent does, is they will either find the places for children to socialize, or we send them to a school that will embody the practices we desire from our kids.
Teaching Child Socialization
The primary location that socialization is learned is through family, and extended family. These types of relations and knowing the who’s who setup the family values and principles first. A tightly bonded family offers the security and the trust that prevent anyone truly feeling hurt. It is one of the places that children will feel some of the tightest bonds.
Close friends and family friends offer another additional bond with the family and children. The bonds of friendship offer additional support for the family and the children, as they see how family and friends better communicate with each other. This is also a good are to safely teach your kids the difference in how we maintain relationships with people that are not bound by the same family.
Remember how I talked about identifying boundaries? I mentioned positive boundaries in my article, “Seven Tips In Becoming a Better Parent(3)” because family and friends are those socialization areas where we can better control the outcome of interaction with our children. This will help them work with others in cases that we must step away and allow our kids to better learn with others. I think because we allow our children to head off to kindergarten class or college for the first time, we feel the ability lost in these actions make us feel the need to let them discover.
Parent Influence on Child Socialization
The influential parent is monumental in teaching those correct behaviors to our child. This is why we want to find those areas we deem as safe and ways to push some boundaries in child development. The relations we have with friends, neighbors, and acquaintances offer a variety of models to determine the correct outcome with our family. The biggest success we find as a parent is that we spend a lifetime with our children, because we want to set them up for the best success in life(4). That success and positive behaviors help determine the outcome and success they will generate in life.
Teaching your child socialization skills are extremely helpful in knowing the desired outcome for your children. Modeling good behavior, finding scenarios to work with your children, and showing those good patterns and habits are important to the overall success of your kids. This part of the job is why mothers and fathers are important to the social cues and success, because of the differing perspectives between both parents. Your children will see the communication both parents share with each other and those they meet.
In conclusion, child socialization is one of the most important, yet rewarding aspects of parenting. Knowing we can communicate with each other support successful interactions, and prevent discussion of taboo subjects, or difficult conversations. In the end, you will see that when your kids hit the age of adulthood, they will learn how to become accepted into the lifelong work, and impact the world.
In reading the above, what did you learn from the article? What would you do differently? At thehomeeconomy.com dba Ideas for Home is a site about home-economics and FCS. We go through simple tips and tricks of home work that are to improve the quality of life and skills to save money at home. We want people to increase their quality of life on an affordable basis and support educate and inform those reading through out site. Please leave a comment, like and share with your social media platforms.
Notes:
- Jeff Thompson, “Is Nonverbal Communication a Numbers Game?”, Sep 30, 2011, Psychology Today, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/beyond-words/201109/is-nonverbal-communication-numbers-game.
- Null, “Child Socialization”, Lumen Learning, https://courses.lumenlearning.com/cochise-sociology-os/chapter/childhood-socialization/.
- Joshua Stephens, “Seven Tips in Becoming a Better Parent”, The Home Economy, https://thehomeeconomy.com/seven-tips-in-becoming-a-better-parent/.
- Amy Morin, “7 Most Important Social Skills for Kids”, Feb 27, 2021, Very Well Family, https://www.verywellfamily.com/seven-social-skills-for-kids-4589865