10 essential life skills for the kid’s development

What are life skills ?

“Skills that are necessary for everyday life.”

Life skills are defined as a set of personal skills as well psychosocial competencies that are necessary for a person. To participate in everyday life. With these skills or competencies, people make big decisions, solve problems effectively, communicate with others more effectively. Then have empathy for others, are able to develop interpersonal relationships. Further able to develop coping skills, and have self-awareness and self-control which help to lead success and progress.

The World Health Organization has defined life skills as,

“The abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life”. 

UNICEF defines life skills as :

“A behavior change or behavior development approach designed to address a balance of three areas: knowledge, attitude, and skills”.

UNICEF, UNESCO, and WHO list the ten core life skill strategies and techniques as :

Problem-solving, critical thinking,

effective communication skills,

decision-making, creative thinking,

interpersonal relationship skills,

self-awareness building skills,

empathy, and coping with stress and emotions,

self-awareness, self-esteem, and self-confidence are essential tools for understanding one’s strengths and weaknesses.

Here , we discussed the life skills that every human being should have. But as we talk about the kids, their needs and understanding are different. I think you all agree too. Personally, I believe that life skills can not be taught but they can be practiced and made a part of life.  But how is it possible? That’s the big question. Yes or No. Before jumping to the topic let me ask some questions. If your answer is Yes then definitely you are successful in developing some life skills in your kid. And if it is NO, then you can understand ……..

        My first question is:

Is your child actually independent? Next is,

Does he/she look after him/herself? Then ,

Do your children have basic etiquette?

Does your child communicate well with others?

Do you think your child has enough life skills to solve the problems he/she faced? 

 If your answer is NO then, parents you need to wake up. Because life skills can not be taught in school only but you can better teach it at home from your day-to-day life experiences. So wake up today and read an article. It will definitely help you shape your child into a better responsible person. 

Only academics do not make a better life but with that life skills are equally important. I can say life skills are more important than academic development. Because there is no syllabus like life skills. Life only teaches the skills. One can experience and learn various skills. So I strongly believe that from childhood only you as parents try to develop various life skills. 

Which are these life skills?

Hey parents, do not worry, I am here to provide you with some basic life skills and ways to develop your kids. As a parent, you might worry about which are the life skills to be developed in your kids. Which life skills are essential to be developed in your child?

Now let see Which are these life skills? 

1. Basic etiquettes
2. Basic self-defense skills.
3. How to interact with other
4. Time management
5. Critical and creative thinking
6. Decision-making skills.
7. Cleaning and other household work
8. Basics of traveling
9. Adjustability and adaptability 
10. Empathy 

These are some suggested life skills out of many life skills your child needs to develop. I think these are the most important and essential life skills that your kids need to develop. Let’s see how do you develop these life skills in your kids?

1.Basic etiquettes : 

 Teaching basic etiquette is a very important part of life. We all are social animals. To be more civilized and socialized it is very important to have some basic etiquette. As a parent of growing children, your duty is more towards them to teach them essential etiquettes to your child. Etiquettes such as :

These are some social etiquettes that children need to learn. Now you may think about how to teach these basic etiquettes to your ward. It is very simple and easy. You can practice these life skills in day-to-day life. They learn these life skills from their own experiences only. For example.

1. Whenever they make any mistakes,encourage them to say sorry . At the same time tell them how important it is to apologize for the mistake.
2.  Encourage your child to help others. Take them to visit old age homes , and show them to needy people. Make them understand how to help those and also our neighbours and friends when they need our help. At the same time you can teach them not to be rude to them. Be grateful to your parents and God to give you all the things you needed. 
3. Teach them to greet others “good Morning”, “Hello”,”How are you ?” etc. And respect each and everyone. 
4. Most importantly, set an example for your ward and be a source of inspiration for your kid. Because they watch you and try to imitate you. So be careful and be accordingly. Give them a prize or appreciate them for displaying good manners.

In this way, you can teach some basic social etiquette to your kids. Apart from these, you can teach them some other life skills.

Other life skills.

1. Dining etiquette – such as how to hold a spoon and fork. How to sit at a dining table etc.
2. Restaurant etiquettes – Such as how to place an order ? How to pay bills ?  How do you call waiters? And many more .
3. Party etiquettes  etc. To tecah the children more social skills. Click on the link . You can find many social skills and ways to develop them in your kids.

These are all basic life skills that a child needs to learn from childhood only. It is the responsibility of parents to teach them these life skills.

2 . Basic self-defense skills :

  “Safety” is the main concern in today’s era. I think as a parent you all agree to it. Whether it is a girl or boy, we feel extremely unsafe and insecure for our kids. As parents, you always think about what you can do to make your child safe and secure. The solution is to teach him /her some self-defense skills. I know you have again the question: How can self-defense skills help to save our child? 

Let me explain, self-defense skills groom your child and make him/her more confident to face the world. And on the other side, these tricks and techniques help them if they are in trouble or face any uncertain condition. 

Nowadays most schools are teaching self-defense skills. So, enroll your kid for these life skills. This life skill is very important in today’s fast-growing world. If a school is not providing such a facility, then enroll them in personal self-defense classes.

It is my humble urge to everyone to teach your child some personal self-defense skills. Because this is the most important life skill to make your kid safe, secure, and confident. 

You can also read this article. It is a really good article about some self-defense techniques for your kids. https://www.parentcircle.com/self-defense-techniques-for-kids/article. 

3. How to interact with others: 

 Good communication is very essential in this competitive world. At the same time, it is very important to teach them to be good listeners first. Communication skills can be developed excellently at a young age only. Provide your child a platform to speak. And as a parent, your duty is to listen to them. And try to give the answer to these questions in a satisfying way. A child can remove his/her fear of interacting with others at this stage only. It helps to make your ward confident. He/she will be good enough to face the world.  I believe “ In today’s era communication is a good weapon to defeat anything and anyone.” So make your kid capable of interacting with others effectively.He/she should be fearless to put up his/her point of view in front of others.

It is possible only if you develop good communication skills in your ward at an early age.

What can you do to develop communication skills?

1. Talk to them daily.
2. Develop the habit of listening to others.
3. Use polite words and be humble and positive while interacting with others.
4. Teach them not to be rude with others. Don’t use harsh words or language.

Why do we need to develop this life skill?

1. Develop self confidence.
2. Helps to develop interpersonal relationships.
3. Foster to build healthy social emotional skills.
4. Make them good listeners. 

How to interact or we can say good communication skill is one of the important life skills. 

4. Time management : 

The world becomes so fast and develops too fast. As adults and parents, we understand the importance of time in our life. Time is money. We should use our time so wisely. Do not waste a single second of your life. That we all know, we should teach the same to our kids. How time is important in our life.

How would you teach them? Let s know the ways to teach time management to your kids.

1. Make a habit to wake up early and go to bed early. Give them an alarm instead of waking up. 
2. Prepare a timetable for the whole day. Encourage them to follow the time table. They get an idea of how easily they can do the work when they schedule everything. It saves energy and they become stress free. Give them a planner to plan the day or work.
3. Give them some tasks to complete in a specific time. 
4. Encourage and motivate them to do work on time or before intimate time. 

In these ways, we can teach our children the importance of managing time. Teach them how important this life skill is to make our day easy, smooth, and stress-free?  

5. Critical and Creative thinking :

Experiential learning is the best way to develop critical and creative thinking among children. They experience, they think, co-relate with past experiences, and create new knowledge. To create new knowledge they need to think critically and creatively.

To get more ideas about experiential learning, click on the link. You get plenty of ideas to develop creative and critical thinking in your ward. 

To think critically and creatively is very important for the kids. These skills help them in diverse and critical situations. In this complex world, everyone should learn to make decisions and accordingly learn to analyze the information. For that, it is important to think out of the box.

6.Decision-making skills:

Decision-making sounds like a very large and heavy term. Right parents???   You all wonder how a little child can make a decision? How would I teach them to make a decision? It is really very easy. Let’s see some examples :

Ask them to choose the clothes- Red or black clothes.

Allow them to order food.

Take them outside and tell them to choose games to play.

These small efforts of yours help them to develop decision-making skills. Also, tell them about the pros and cons of the decision taken by them. Guide them whenever needed. To teach what is right and wrong?

As they grow up they have to choose many things like career, education, friends, life partner and many more. Childhood is the stage where you can easily teach them what is right and wrong for them. In a way, you can develop decision-making skills which are again important life skills that need to be developed in the kids. 

7.Cleaning and other household work :

Wait, wait parents it is not a very big problem. First, read these ideas to make your child do some household and cleaning work. I know that it is one of the difficult tasks. Believe me, it is not impossible. Try these ways you will surely succeed. 

1. Tell your ward to keep the toys in the right place.
2. Encourage them to keep the thing back at the palace from where they have taken it.
3. Make a habit of washing or cleaning your own eating plate.
4. Plan a day where they arrange and clean their own room.
5. Develop the habit of using a dustbin. Same time, making them understand timely-daily removal of trash is very important for our health and hygiene. So encourage them to remove trash daily and change daily trash bags.
6. Teach them how to change toilet papers and other basic things.’
7. Plan a day where you challenge your kid to decorate the dining table, drawing room or bedroom creatively. 

 These ways will definitely help you out to make your child do household work without getting in return. 

8.Basics of traveling :

Traveling at a young age, yes you heard right. As a parent, you forget to develop these important skills in your kid. Children should know how to ride a bicycle, how to take public transport. He/she should know to buy or book tickets. They also have knowledge about buses, trains, and the metro. Children must know the route of their own house and school.

They also have knowledge of navigation and the use of the compass. Children may know how to use google maps and other maps? Kids must know some road safety measures and rules. These all can be taught at an early age. Take them to visit bus stops, Railway stations, or metro stations. Allow them to get a ride of it. Ask them to buy a ticket. Practice them to cross the road. Teach them the functioning of red green and yellow lights.

These are some basic travel life skills that children need to learn and develop. 

9.Adjustability and adaptability :

Adjustability and adaptability are main or I can say core life skills. That every child should learn. And every parent should try to develop these skills in their kids.

Resilience, adjustability, or flexibility is a must in the child. Do not always be there for your child to solve his/her problems. Let her/him face the problem. Let him /her try to solve those problems. If he /she can face the problems, then only he/she is able to adapt to the change they face in their life. Time passes and changes must occur in life. So prepare your child to adapt to those changes flexibly. 

As a parent, your duty is to listen to your child. and communicate with him/her whenever he/she needs you. Be an open channel of communication for him/her. So he/she can talk with you, and you can guide them accordingly. Provide them with a modest atmosphere at home. You also adopt a model of resilient behavior with your kids. 

10. Empathy :

each your children empathy and sympathy. Give them some situations where they can feel empathy or sympathize with others. For example :

 Sam does not have food to eat. This small sentence has many things to understand. Encourage them to feel as if he is Sam and does not have anything to eat. It helps to develop empathy for others. Because he, himself thinks like Sam and feels the same pain. He has his own feet in the same shoes. So he can very well understand and feel the pain.

In the same way, encourage your child to look at the problems from others’ perspectives. Suppose the child came with some complaints from his/her friends. Tell him/her to think from the perspective of his/her friend.  Due to which he/ she can develop effectiveness in solving the problems. It helps to develop interpersonal relationships. It also helps to understand other people very well. They also learn how to behave socially. 

Empathy and sympathy are essential life skills. It helps to develop social-emotional relationships. And also helps to develop interpersonal relationships. Which are again important life skills. 

Conclusion:

Developing various life skills is very essential to make our child a better human being. I assure you that these types of life skills definitely enhance positive personality traits in your kids when they grow up. 

If you practice these life skills inside and outside the house, your child must come out as a confident independent individual person. He/she is ready to face the world and stand there as a strong pillar. 

I also suggest you read this article related to life skills. I read this article and I personally found this article very helpful and effective. 

Suggested article: 11 Life Skills You Should Teach Your Kids

Life skills are a very essential part of everyone’s life. As a parent, your duty is to educate your kids on these life skills in a fun way. So that they do not feel a burden. And grow as an independent person. Which helps him/her to make decisions, solve problems and be confident to present him/herself. It is possible with your support and guidance. To guide you all parents. Read this article and refer and share with other parents also. This article will surely help you all to develop life skills among your kids.

There are many more life skills you can develop in your kids. If you find that we missed any important life skills. Just drop a comment. Also, write your views on How important it is to develop life skills in kids.