People are not born social butterflies. While it’s very easy for us adults to converse with each other, mingle with people we know and don’t know and to interact with friends and even with strangers we come across every day, it’s not the same thing for kids.

It is up to you as parent to teach your kid about how to interact with other people and how to be sociable. Here are some tips on how to improve your kid’s social skills:

1. Introduce him to neighbors and little kids. When he’s inside the house all the time, there’s no room for him to thrive socially. When all he’s ever gotten to talk to are his parents and siblings, it shouldn’t surprise you that he hides behind you when someone approaches to talk to him.

Be sure that you give him lots of opportunities to talk to other people especially kids of his own age by bringing him out of the house once in a while to visit neighbors, friends or relatives and introducing him to the people around. At first he may be a bit scared and wary but he’ll eventually warm up as he becomes comfortable in socializing with other people.

2. Bring him to social events. Attend birthday celebrations, weddings, parties or any social event you’re invited to and bring your kid with you. Related to the first tip, this also enhances your kid’s social skills as he becomes comfortable in mingling with people he’s just met.

3. Be a good example. In social gatherings or at any situation where you’re interacting with another person, your kid will see and observe at how you deal with other people so be sure you’re always cautious about your actions because this will lay the foundation for his social skills and how he interacts with other people. When he sees that you converse with other people with courtesy, it’s a sure bet that he will do the same.

4. Engage him in activities that call for cooperative and collaborative play and teamwork. There are many activities that call for group play like building a wooden train for example.

What you can do is you can invite little kids from the neighbourhood or the kids of your friends over to your house for an afternoon of wooden train building.

Constructing a wooden toy train for children may take some effort but with a little help from your kid’s friends, he’ll see how fun it is to engage in a group play. In building a wooden train sets with other kids, your kid will get to practice positive interaction with his peers and learn about the significance of collaborative work.

What’s also great about building wooden trains is that it is also effective in honing a wide array of skills such as creativity and imagination, fine motor skills, spatial concepts and visual perception.