Soft-Skills: Key for Child’s Development
September 27, 2022
In today’s complex world, it is essential to have soft skills that can complement high academic performance. Teachers and parents should focus on the well-rounded development of children by creating opportunities to acquire and enhance soft skills. International schools continuously focus on developing soft-skills by introducing various activities.
What are soft skills?
Soft skills are a combination of people skills, social skills, communication skills, character or personality traits that enable people to perform better and achieve their goals.
Unlike hard skills, like math, and science, soft skills revolve around communication, empathy, and self-discipline.
Children learn these essential skills by interacting with their peers and family members.
Let’s look at the 4 key soft skills.
1. Communication Skills
Communication skills include effective expression, transmission, understanding, and interpretation of knowledge and ideas. To improve communication skills, children should be encouraged to express themselves freely via gestures, narrations, and asking the right questions. IB school in Chembur encourages learners to ask questions and develop their communication skills.
2. Teamwork & Collaboration
Collaborating with groups and teamwork is a necessary skill. This can be encouraged by narrating incidents of teamwork eg. Fire brigade, army, etc. Making them part of group activities. Best international schools in Chembur keeps introducing group activities where kids have to work in a team and get the task done.
3. Problem Solving
Problem-solving skills are needed in everyday life and work. This means being able to observe, critically analyse and produce solutions to problems. Problem-solving can be improved by:
Shape sorters and puzzles. Teach problem-solving basic steps with simple examples.
4. Decision Making
The ability to make good judgments and anticipate the consequences of actions is essential to moving forward in life. It is important to let children make their own decisions and not judge them harshly even when mistakes are made. This teaches them to be independent and confident.
Key Learning: Soft skills remain critical for children’s development and prospects. Soft skills can be improved and supported during childhood by parents, teachers, and specialists.