Parent Guide

How to Teach Social Skills to Kids at Home: 10 Practical Ways

Last Updated: July 25, 2026

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Parent Guide

A parent guide to practicing turn-taking, joining play, expressing needs, understanding social situations, and respecting boundaries – with optional support from the BASICS app.

To teach social skills to kids at home, choose one useful skill and practise it during short, familiar routines. Model what the child can do, allow time to respond, accept speech, gestures, signs, pictures, or augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), and adjust the activity to the child’s comfort and communication needs. Social skills do not develop in one fixed order, and practice should support connection and choice rather than force eye contact, outgoing behaviour, or friendship.

Social skills are not a single ability. They include sharing attention, taking turns, asking for help, refusing, entering or leaving play, solving disagreements, and noticing what another person may mean. A child may find one of these easy and need support with another.

The goal is not to make every child behave in the same way. Some children enjoy large groups; others prefer one friend, familiar adults, or time alone. Useful social-skills practice gives a child more ways to communicate, participate, protect their boundaries, and understand other people’s boundaries.

What Social Skills Can Children Practise at Home?

Home practice works best when the skill is specific enough to observe. “Be more social” is too vague. A clearer goal might be taking two turns in a ball game, asking for a toy, telling someone to stop, or trying one way to join a familiar game.

Social skills you can practise include:

Shared attention: noticing or sharing interest in the same object, action, or event. This can happen without direct eye contact.
Back-and-forth interaction: taking turns with actions, sounds, gestures, or words.
Requests and refusals: asking for an item, help, a turn, a break, or for something to stop.
Joining and leaving play: approaching, observing, asking, participating, or leaving when the child has had enough.
Conversation: starting, responding, taking turns, changing topics, and repairing misunderstandings.
Emotional understanding: noticing possible clues, considering the situation, and asking rather than assuming what another person feels.
Boundaries and problem-solving: respecting another person’s “no,” protecting personal space, and finding another option during a disagreement.

ASHA describes social communication as including shared attention, social reciprocity, gestures, AAC, conversation, and the influence of both communication partners. This matters because a social interaction is never only one child’s responsibility.

Do Social Skills Develop in a Fixed Order?

No. Social, language, sensory, motor, attention, and emotional-regulation skills overlap, and children develop them at different rates. Turn-taking and shared attention can be useful areas to practise, but they are not universal prerequisites that must be mastered before every other social skill.

Age-based milestones can help parents notice broad patterns, but they are not a rigid sequence or a diagnosis. The CDC’s three-year milestones include noticing other children and joining play, while its four-year milestones include asking to play with another child. The CDC also states that its milestone checklists are not substitutes for standardized developmental screening.

A child may play beside another child, join briefly, return to solitary play, or interact differently with familiar and unfamiliar people. Look at whether the child can communicate needs, access activities, recover from misunderstandings, and participate in ways that matter to them. Do not use one play style, a forced greeting, or eye contact as proof that a child is or is not socially connected.

How to Teach Social Skills to Kids at Home

The most useful practice is brief, responsive, and connected to something the child actually wants to do. These ten strategies can be adapted for children who speak and for children who communicate in other ways.

1. Choose One Functional Social Goal

Start with one action the child can use in daily life. Examples include:

Take two turns rolling a ball
Ask for help opening a box
Indicate “my turn,” “wait,” “stop,” or “finished”
Try one way to join a familiar game
Tell a play partner when something feels uncomfortable

Choose the goal from a real situation, not from a checklist of how a child is “supposed” to behave. If the child already works with a speech-language therapist, teacher, occupational therapist, or other professional, align home practice with the current plan.

2. Follow the Child’s Interests and Social Comfort

Practice is easier when the activity already matters to the child. Use a favourite ball, song, vehicle, animal, sensory game, or book. A child who does not want to join a particular activity is not automatically showing a social-skills problem.

Offer an invitation and watch the response. Reduce the number of people, noise, waiting time, or language if the child appears overwhelmed. Respect “no,” “stop,” moving away, covering ears, turning away, or another clear sign that the child needs a break.

3. Make Turn-Taking Short and Obvious

Roll a ball, add blocks to a tower, make sounds, turn book pages, or place pieces in a puzzle. Use a short cue such as “my turn” and “your turn.” Begin with one or two quick exchanges.

Turn-taking is not the same as forcing a child to give up an item they are still using. When a shared object is involved, show when the turn will end and make sure the child gets it back. A visible timer may help some children, but it can add pressure for others.

4. Model Ways to Ask, Refuse, and Repair

Give the child usable communication for common problems:

“My turn”
“Help”
“Not that one”
“Stop”
“Can I have it when you are finished?”
“I meant…”
“Try again”

Model the same message through the child’s communication system. That may mean speaking, signing, pointing to a picture, or selecting words on an AAC device. Do not remove an established communication method to encourage speech.

5. Practise More Than One Way to Join or Leave Play

“Can I play?” is one option, not the only correct script. A child might also watch first, offer a toy, copy the activity beside the group, ask what the rules are, invite one person to a different game, or use AAC to request a turn.

Teach leaving as well as joining. “I need a break,” “I’m finished,” or moving to a planned quiet place can protect the child’s comfort and prevent an interaction from becoming distressing.

6. Talk About Feelings Using Clues and Context

A facial expression can be a clue, but it is not proof of an emotion. Instead of saying, “She is happy because she is smiling,” try: “She is smiling and holding the gift. She might feel happy or excited. We could ask her.”

Books, family photos, and everyday situations can help children consider several clues:

What happened?
What can we see or hear?
What might the person want?
Could there be another explanation?
What could we ask?

This approach teaches flexible thinking without suggesting that every face, tone, or body movement has one correct meaning.

7. Use Role-Play Before a Real Situation

Use toys, drawings, or simple pretend play to rehearse one situation at a time. Practise waiting for a swing, asking to join a game, responding when someone says “no,” or telling an adult about teasing.

Keep the rehearsal short. Offer two or three possible responses rather than one perfect script. A script is a support the child can choose, not a performance they must copy exactly.

8. Make the Environment Easier

Sometimes the barrier is the setting, not a missing skill. A noisy room, unclear rules, fast-moving play, inaccessible communication, or a large group can make participation difficult.

Try:

One familiar play partner instead of a large group
A predictable activity with a clear beginning and end
Visual choices or written rules
The child’s AAC device, pictures, or signs within reach
A quieter space or a planned break
An adult who can explain the game without taking it over

NICE recommends adjusting social-communication support to the individual child’s developmental level and helping communication partners respond more sensitively to the child’s communication patterns.

9. Support the Other Children, Too

If a child is left out, the answer is not always more training for that child. Peers may need help slowing down, recognising a gesture or AAC message, explaining the rules, making space in the activity, and respecting a refusal.

Watch for teasing, bullying, repeated exclusion, or games designed so the child cannot participate. Work with teachers or other adults to change the environment and support all communication partners. Do not teach a child that they must tolerate unkind behaviour to keep a friendship.

10. Notice What Helped and Practise It Again

After the activity, record what made participation easier:

The child joined independently or after a model
A gesture, sign, picture, spoken word, or AAC message worked
A shorter wait helped
One partner was easier than a group
The child needed a quieter setting
The child communicated that they wanted to stop

Repeat the same skill in a natural routine, but avoid turning the day into a series of tests. One useful exchange during play or a meal can tell you more than many prompted responses on a worksheet.

What Should You Do About Common Social-Skills Concerns?

The same behaviour can have several explanations. Respond to immediate safety and boundaries, then look at the communication, sensory, emotional, and environmental factors around it.

Parent concern	What it might mean	What to try
“My child plays near other children but not with them.”	The child may enjoy parallel play, be observing, need familiarity, or prefer a different activity.	Join the child’s play, model one shared action, and offer an invitation without forcing group participation.
“My child grabs instead of asking.”	The child may want the item, have difficulty waiting, act impulsively, feel distressed, or lack easy access to a request.	Protect the other child’s boundary, acknowledge the request, and offer speech, gesture, sign, picture, or AAC options.
“My child does not greet people.”	The child may need processing time, feel anxious, not understand the expectation, or prefer another form of acknowledgement.	Model a wave, nod, spoken greeting, or AAC message. Do not require eye contact or physical touch.
“My child gets left out or rejected.”	The group may be inaccessible, peers may misunderstand the child’s communication, or bullying or incompatibility may be involved.	Observe the situation, involve responsible adults, support peers, and create safer opportunities around shared interests.

How Can the BASICS App Support Social-Skills Practice?

BASICS can organise parent-guided practice, but the value comes from what the adult and child do together and what happens after the screen activity.

The current BASICS App Store listing describes:

Therapist-created plans for speech, occupational therapy, social skills, and everyday skills
A plan based on parent responses about the child’s current skills
Three suggested activities a day
Demonstration videos, simple steps, parent prompts, and therapist tips
Social Skills & Feelings content involving emotions, calming, turn-taking, and friendship
Feelings & Friendships games
Video models of social moments such as saying hello and joining play
Communication activities that include speech, gestures, and AAC
Goal-by-goal progress tracking without streaks or comparisons with other children
Use alongside the child’s therapy team rather than as a replacement

These features can make a social situation slower and easier to examine. They do not prove that a child has understood the situation or will use the skill with another person. A parent or professional still needs to observe the child’s response, adjust support, and practise the skill in real interaction.

What BASICS Cannot Do

BASICS cannot diagnose a social-communication difficulty, explain why a child is struggling, assess hearing, prescribe a complete AAC system, or replace an individual developmental or speech-language evaluation. It is described as AAC-friendly, but it is not established as a full communication-device replacement or as a system that automatically interprets every gesture, sign, or AAC response.

The app should not be used to force eye contact, suppress harmless autistic traits, demand a conventional greeting, or train a child to ignore discomfort. For autistic children, ASHA states that skilled services should support meaningful goals without forcing masking or loss of identity.

How Do You Move a BASICS Activity Into Real Life?

Use the app as a model and planning tool, then create one small opportunity with a real person.

Choose one functional goal. Pick a message or interaction the child can use that day.
Preview the activity. Watch the demonstration and decide what the child is being asked to practise.
Prepare communication access. Keep signs, pictures, glasses, hearing technology, seating supports, or the AAC device available.
Set up one clear opportunity. Use a familiar toy, snack, book, or routine rather than an abstract test.
Pause and observe. Allow processing time and notice looks, reaches, gestures, signs, speech, or AAC.
Accept the relevant response. Match the response to the goal; do not turn every goal into a speech-only task.
Model without forcing imitation. Show one useful response and continue the interaction even if the child does not copy it.
Repeat naturally and record what helped. Try the same skill once later in the day and share useful observations with the child’s therapist or teacher.

Stop or change the activity if the child shows pain, fatigue, distress, sensory overload, or persistent disengagement. Completing an app task is not more important than the child’s regulation or communication.

When is an App Not Enough?

An app cannot determine whether social difficulty is related to language, hearing, anxiety, sensory needs, attention, motor skills, developmental differences, the environment, bullying, or another factor.

Speak with a paediatrician, speech-language professional, audiologist, or another appropriate child-development professional if your child:

Has lost communication, play, movement, or other skills they previously used
Often does not respond to sounds or spoken language
Has very few reliable ways to ask, refuse, comment, seek help, or report discomfort
Becomes frequently distressed during communication or social situations
Has difficulties that affect safety, learning, daily participation, or relationships across settings
Is being repeatedly bullied, excluded, or misunderstood
Causes you ongoing concern, even if you cannot identify one specific sign

The CDC advises parents to act early when a child has lost skills or when development causes concern. A professional assessment can examine the child’s strengths, communication methods, hearing, language, sensory and motor needs, environments, and communication partners. The purpose is to understand what support is needed, not to make the child appear more typical.

Try BASICS for Parent-Guided Social-Skills Practice

BASICS offers therapist-created plans, three suggested activities a day, demonstration videos, step-by-step guidance, therapist tips, games, and progress tracking. Its current Social Skills & Feelings content includes emotions, calming, turn-taking, friendship, and video models for everyday social moments.

Download BASICS on Google Play

Download BASICS on the Apple App Store

BASICS Premium currently includes a seven-day trial and then renews automatically unless cancelled according to the relevant store terms. Before subscribing, check the current price, renewal date, cancellation process, privacy information, data collection, and device compatibility.

Use one meaningful goal at a time, practise together, and carry the skill into daily life. If concerns persist or the reason for the difficulty is unclear, arrange a professional assessment rather than waiting for an app to provide the explanation.

Clinically Reviewed By

Reviewed by Shravanaveena Gajula, BASLP, M.Sc. Speech and Language Pathology, Audiologist and Speech-Language Pathologist at Wellness Hub.

Shravanaveena supports children and families with speech and language assessment, early communication concerns, speech sound difficulties, autism-related communication needs, and parent-guided home practice. This article was reviewed for clinical accuracy, parent-friendly language, and safe guidance.

This content is for educational purposes only and does not replace professional assessment, diagnosis, or therapy.

View therapist profile: Shravanaveena Gajula