Parents have remarked how their children hold back from expressing themselves in school but will frequently complain about a variety of situations related to school when they get home. Children can express extreme shyness and social issues in school.

This manifests itself as:

• Refusing to ask permission to go to the toilet
• Selective mutism
• Inability to make friends/positive connections
• Lack of interactions in group activities in the classroom
• Neglecting to report bullying or other incidents of ill treatment

Some children we have worked with can be identified as those who would benefit are those that we have spotted a correlation between their social difficulties and as coming from quite traumatic backgrounds. For others there is a likely link between their ability to socialise well and English being a second language.

Social skills help to expand our language skills as well as giving us access to more ideas that in turn expand our way of thinking and understanding the world around us. In NLP, we help children to develop their social skills which will in turn:

• Increase their language and vocabulary
• Increase their interest in literacy
• Widen their social network to provide greater opportunities in the future
• Help them to develop a more thorough understanding of the world
• Increase their ability to understand others
• Increase their ability to express themselves

We have found that children who learn how to interact with others, speak up when they have a need to communicate their emotions, they also put themselves in a position where they are able to interact with others and as such, this creates a higher likelihood of being able to achieve more in their lives. They have done better in school work as they are able to express their opinions and their level of understanding. Seeing their abilities become in alignment with their peers will increase their confidence and willingness to achieve more. It also reduces the gap in their level of understanding which will in turn increase their self esteem.

Overall, by enabling children to become more interactive in their social circles this can increase their interest in accessing new opportunities in the wider world. This means that they are more likely to be up and out in the world interacting, instead of hiding away and withdrawing. The impact of this on their mental health is that they will have greater support networks available to them and this is conducive to maintaining a healthier attitude and mindset.

By Gemma Bailey
http://www.NLP4Kids.org/gemma-bailey