Hansa Parashar 
Social skills are those skills which help a person to adjust and adapt in the society by accepting and inculcating its culture (values, beliefs, traditions etc.).
Social skills act as catalyst in the overall development of the child by aiding him/her with the weapon of understanding and shaping one’s exterior to face challenges in life.
In our society where every now and then there is a catastrophic incident happening, there is a urgent requirement of social skills on a bigger level. There are so many cases of Hit-and-Run, brutal murders, lack of remorse in criminals, poor upbringings which are the accelerating evidences of growing inhumanity in the world over.
We Indians have a rich cultural heritage that involves being humble, helpful, respectful. Unfortunately, we are forgetting these positive attributes of our culture. These long abandoned shared beliefs amongst our people are making a huge cry to bring those back with great dignity and sooner the better.
You must be thinking that why should social skills be introduced in the preschool….what would the little minds learn from this?
Well, the answer is provided in the following reminders.
SIGNIFICANCE OF SOCIAL SKILLS IN PRESCHOOL
- The Tabula Rasa: The age range of preschoolers is three to four years. During this time period the mind of the child is fresh, untouched and em-poisoned. Basically, a child’s mind is like a Blank Slate on which anything can be imprinted very easily. In this phase the children are in an advancement process. Hence, there is a lot of scope for new learning to take place. Therefore, if good thoughts and habits are rewarded, reinforced they will have a long term positive impact on the child. As he will grow to bear an optimistic personality and his/her perspective to analyze things will be much different from the rest. He/she will be like rain in the scorching heat for the people around.
- Strong Grasping Power: The preschoolers have high strength of acceptance due to which they embrace new things comfortably. For them everything seems to be exciting and children are naturally inquisitive. Nevertheless it is an advantage for the parents and kindergartners to make the latter learn values in this approachable state.
