Kids can get tired of the taste of things very easily, so if you serve the same thing all the time then chances are your kids won’t eat it anymore. Try to serve different things as often as you can, the more things that your child is open to eating then the more nutrition he can get. Take a look at your kid’s plate, remember that the more color there is the more variety and the more sources of nutrients are present.

2. Healthy drinks should be your first option in terms of giving your child liquids.

Children love sugary drinks such as instant or canned juice and soda. These contain empty calories and only cause your children to be overly energized without really giving them any health benefits. Water should be given as often as possible and if your child really wants juice give him or her fresh fruit or vegetable juice.

3. Eat in moderation.

Anything that is in excess is bad for the body, mist especially if these are unhealthy foods. Teach your child to listen to his body and to eat just as he needs. Don’t force your child to finish everything on his plate all the time, since this will only train him to ignore the signal of his body when he is full. This can eventually lead to over eating and obesity in the future.

4. Less is more, especially when it comes to salt intake.

The less that your children take in, the more his body will be benefitting from it. Your child can very easily be consuming more than his daily recommended intake of salt because of junk food. Switch to foods that have less sodium. Remember that low sodium does not necessarily mean less of it so make sure that what you get is labeled “Less”.

5. Choose good cholesterol.

A healthy heart is something that you will definitely want your kids to have. You can help your kids get this by making sure that they eat good cholesterol. Use canola oil for cooking and avoid reheating oil. When you buy them food, check the label to see whether or not it contains a large amount of saturated fat which can be unhealthy.

6. Fiber is a very important part of anyone’s diet, children included.

We often don’t get to give our kids enough fiber, but we really should since it can help cleanse the body and provide important nutrients. It can also help make your child feel full and stay feeling full so that he doesn’t graze too much.

7. Regular meals are another important part of having your kids eat healthy.

Skipping on meals will not only make your child lose out on important nutrients, it also disrupts the body’s feeding schedule and metabolism. Make sure that your child eats breakfast to get him energized for the day.

8. Make food fun for your kids.

Each meal does not have to be a battle at the table. If you make food a big issue then the more that your children will have an aversion towards eating. Try to find ways to involve your children and make the whole process from preparing food to eating it fun.

9. Don’t watch TV during meals.

Many parents allow their children to watch television while they eat, which makes the child lose focus on what they are doing. Instead of paying attention to their food and enjoying their meal they end up watching more TV. This can also give your child problems with digestion since they may not be getting to chew their food properly.

10. Schedule snacks and graze healthy.

Many children graze through out the day and end up having no appetite for an entire meal because they are already quite full. If your child grazes on junk food then this becomes even more of a problem, since he is taking in empty calories. Try to limit grazing by scheduling a proper snack time in between meals. If your child gets hungry close to meal times give him something light like a cracker so that he does not get filled and you don’t whet his appetite. Also, make it a point to give  your kids healthy snacks so that even if they do eat in between meals, they still get something nutritious.

Here is a simple and pretty healthy snack which your children can help make. . .FUN FRUIT SKEWERS

Professor Matt Sanders

Only last century child labour laws were introduced to stop the previously common practice of sending children out to be part of Britain’s mining workforce.

By contrast, today, children in some countries are able to sue their parents for mistreatment, and certain societies do not expect children to contribute much to the ordinary activities of the home.

Somewhere in the middle of all this falls busy everyday mums and dads with healthy active children;  children who by primary school age are capable of such household chores as washing dishes, tidying their bedrooms, clearing the dinner table, or working in the yard.

So should children help about the house or not?

It depends of course on each parent’s particular view of family roles, however the responsibility of regular chores helps children learn self-discipline and how to apply themselves to a job, as well as new skills to carry with them into their own adult family life. Chores encourage children’s understanding that being part of a family involves contributing to the smooth running of the home.

As an added bonus, if you give your child chores, you will find you have more time to spend with them on other activities as well as more time for yourself.

Everybody wins — so long as a common sense approach is taken.

I once had a case where an 8-year-old girl was required to prepare breakfast for a family of five, wake her mother for work with breakfast in bed at 8.30am, make school lunches, and wash all the dishes on her own — clearly not beneficial for a child.

The key to helping your children learn to undertake appropriate chores cheerfully and competently is to move slowly.

Whatever age you choose to introduce your children to chores, it is a good idea to start all children at the same time, even though they may be of differing ages. Children will accept the new responsibilities more readily if they feel they are not being singled out.

Always be aware of the physical limitations of your child and make sure you first take some time to work out with your partner exactly what tasks you think they are capable of.

The use of a written job roster stuck up on the fridge will help avoid future arguments and remind each child of what is required. Ask your child to suggest jobs they might like to do for the roster. If they say they don’t want to do anything tell them you will decide their jobs if they do not choose themselves.

You might like to initially offer some form of reward for completing chores properly such as a special activity or pocket money, but remember you should gradually reduce rewards over time as your child learns the roster. You will also have to spell out the consequences of not doing chores, such as going to bed early or not watching certain television shows.

Your child should learn to do chores as a general family responsibility, not solely as a way of getting rewards or avoiding punishment.

If your child does not complete a chore satisfactorily do not get into a debate with them about it. Ignore their protests or complaints and immediately carry out the previously agreed consequence. Be consistent and patient, and review each week’s performance in relation to the job roster. Give praise where it is earned, and encourage improvement. You and your child will eventually both reap the rewards.

Parenting Tip: Children can be manipulative when they don’t particularly want to do something. Try not to get trapped into allowing your child to keep doing something else instead of their chores under the promise that they will do the chores as soon as they have finished. Children won’t always keep to the bargain.

Professor Matt Sanders is founder of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program. Contact Elizabeth Kunz at Kinder Institute, 407-898-7798, or Elizabeth.kunz@thekinderinstitute.com or visit the web at www.triplep.net.

Professor Matt Sanders

As we approach a new millennium and the technology of media and entertainment appears to change ever faster before our very eyes, one influential bit of now ageing 20th century technology still sits happily in the corner of our lounge rooms.

When television was first broadcast, people crowded around sets and watched with wonder. Today television is simply part of the backdrop — something we take for granted. In some households it murmurs away in the background, morning and night, a comforting companion. For others it springs into life issuing graphic snippets of global news immediately that mom or dad arrives home from work.

While researchers remain divided about the exact effects of viewing television on our growing children, there is no doubt that television has a major impact.

So is television good or bad for your kids?

I hate to sound trite, but the answer is that it can be both.

Children can learn a lot about their world from seeing people, animals, places, things and events they may never actually experience. Television can encourage fantasy and create an enjoyable learning process. It also helps children relax and wind down after school or a boisterous activity.

But not all children’s television programs are up to the benchmark of “Sesame Street”, and for older children we know as adults that the phrase “quality programming” doesn’t cover too much of today’s nightly TV fair.

Content aside, the very nature of television watching is passive and that means when children spend too much time watching television they miss out on opportunities for learning through doing — the nature of interactive activities. Homework, outdoor play, exercise, reading, and time spent talking with parents and other family members must not be neglected.

As parents we can help make the effects of watching television more positive by influencing how much our children watch, what they watch, and whether we are around and available for children to talk to us about a confusing or upsetting program.

Of course, you need to decide for yourself how many hours of television you think your child should watch. It might be a good idea first to quietly note just how much television your child is viewing in a normal week. The figure for 7- to 11 year olds could be at least 21 hours.

For children aged up to 12 years of age I recommend a maximum of only one hour per day during a school week and a little longer on the weekend.

If you want to set new television watching hours, make sure you tell your children about your plans and enlist their aid in seeing it through. Read the TV guide with your child and write down which programs they want to watch. When you agree on these, explain new ground rules such as “only watch selected programs”, “the television will be turned off at other times, or if there are any arguments”, and “no television before homework is finished.”

When setting television watching rules, it is important to include something to combat the common habit children have of turning on the television “just to see what’s on”. Any time this or any other ground rule is broken, cancel the child’s viewing for that night. If it happens again, be prepared to unplug the set and remove it from the room.

Parenting Tip: It is sometimes hard for younger parents to cope with reduced television hours for their children because of their own viewing habits. Try watching most of your television after the children are in bed. Of course, there is another alternative. Families who decide to cut down on their television watching report that they all start talking to each other more, getting involved in hobbies and other activities, and children start to show an interest in reading.

Professor Matt Sanders is founder of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program. Contact Elizabeth Kunz at Kinder Institute, 407-898-7798, or Elizabeth.kunz@thekinderinstitute.com or visit the web at www.triplep.net.

Professor Matt Sanders

Parents often ask me if it’s ok to use a reward such as money as an incentive for children to get better grades at school.  It’s not uncommon to hear of parents offering their child $20 or $30 for every “A” they get on their end of term report card.  So is this the best way to get your child to perform at school?

One of the problems with giving children financial incentives for good end of term grades is that the reward comes too long after the effort is made.

Rather than waiting till the end of term, it’s much more effective to set up a system of rewards which are brief and frequent and which encourage positive daily habits.  These daily habits then build towards an eventual outcome, such as a good homework and study routine.  A good homework and study routine then gives your child the best shot at achieving the level of grades that are within their capabilities.

Also, rewards should be sprinkled throughout the term, because, for children, it’s too long to wait until the end of term when the grades are ultimately awarded.  You end up with a dislocation between when the effort is made and when the reward is received.

You can encourage children to build good study and homework habits without having to resort to offering money.  Why not try a reward such as spending time with your child doing an activity they really like or providing them with a special treat you know they’ll enjoy.   The object is to encourage children into good routines by giving extra attention and praise or small frequent rewards when they are doing the right thing.  When kids are struggling that little bit of extra attention can encourage them into new patterns of behavior.

Another reason to be careful about rewarding children for end of term grades is that there can be a whole range of factors that come into play when it comes to your child’s education.  Things such as the environment in which they’re taught, the quality of the curriculum, the standard of instruction as well as your child’s ability all need to be taken into account.  If your child is not succeeding you may need to look at the bigger picture.

Professor Matt Sanders is founder of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program. Contact Elizabeth Kunz at Kinder Institute, 407-898-7798, or Elizabeth.kunz@thekinderinstitute.com or visit the web at www.triplep.net.

Professor Matt Sanders

The use of punishment with children is a topic guaranteed to stir heated debate between two diametrically opposed sides of opinion. But to simplify the issue of punishment down to an argument about whether it is morally right or wrong to smack your child is to miss the point entirely.

So is to argue that children today don’t get enough punishment for misbehaving and so simply need a “kick up the bum” to pull them into line.

Views such as these show a very limited understanding of children and their problems.

Many children who have been referred to our parenting program over the years have had more hidings than hot dinners. Insufficient punishment is rarely a problem — how punishment is used frequently is.

While there is little doubt a firm smack on the bottom can be an effective deterrent, particularly when a child is doing something dangerous, at best corporal punishment works some of the time, for some behaviours, with some children. When used ineffectively and inconsistently it more often than not leads to further behaviour problems.

A wealth of research and experience about the way humans behave has shown us that consequences for misbehaviour work best when applied immediately after the offending behaviour has occurred and in sufficient intensity to serve as a deterrent.

I have always recommended that parents consider using alternatives to physical force when disciplining their children. These alternative approaches need however to be specific and practical. Children do not thrive in an environment without rules, structure, guidance and consequences.

An important part of helping parents learn effective alternative discipline strategies involves showing examples where common types of punishment don’t work and can lead to more misbehaviour.

Punishment threatened but not carried out. “Wait until your father gets home”, is a threat sometimes heard in families. But if a child hears these threatens of punishment often and rarely receives any consequences the threat won’t do much to control behaviour. Indeed some children consider threats of punishment a dare to test their parent’s limits.

Punishment given in anger. Parents often use spankings and other punishments when they are angry with a child. But when parents become extremely angry there is a risk of losing control and causing injury. Outbursts of rage serve to make a child feel unloved, resentful and insecure. While it is inevitable a parent will sometimes feel angry, it is not always helpful to act in openly hostile ways when children misbehave.

Punishment as a crisis response. A few years back a mother in our program had a 10-year-old who constantly harassed her with complaints about where he wanted to spend a long weekend. Several times she tried to reason with him that the family could not afford the trip, however when he kept up the nagging she eventually exploded, screaming insults at him and sending him to his room. Responding to the misbehaviour with punishment before it became intolerable would probably avoided her reaching a crisis point and subsequently overreacting.

Inconsistent use of punishment. A couple who came to us with a 7-year-old who was polite and well behaved at school but at home let loose with swearing and abuse whenever he didn’t get his way, couldn’t agree on how to handle the problem. The mother thought it best to ignore the behaviour. The father insisted that any swearing should be dealt with by a good whacking from his belt and sending the child to his room. This meant the child got away with swearing some times and not others, and the problem behaviour got worse over time, not better. Children cannot be expected to learn acceptable patterns of behaviour if their parents’ reactions are unpredictable.

Remember too, discipline strategies always work best in a caring, loving, predictable environment where children receive plenty of praise and encouragement when they behave well.

Professor Matt Sanders is founder of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program. Contact Elizabeth Kunz at Kinder Institute, 407-898-7798, or Elizabeth.kunz@thekinderinstitute.com or visit the web at www.triplep.net.

Professor Matt Sanders

Although school holidays are a great time to relax and rejuvenate they can also be a stressful for parents searching for ways to keep children “amused”. So here are my top five tips to survive the school holidays.

Tip No 1: Sit down with your kids and plan activities that they can look forward to. Make a list of free activities, activities they can do at home, and activities with a budget. Check suburban papers and local councils for free holiday programs or log onto the internet to see what’s happening in your area. Put the full list on the fridge and refer kids to the “activities at home” section when you’re hit with the “I’m bored” syndrome!

Tip No 2: Organize a holiday budget and discuss this with the children. It’s important for children to understand that you don’t have a bottomless pit of money and that, in fact, you don’t need lots of money to have fun. You may like to plan some activities with a dollar tag attached but there are plenty of free activities in parks, museums, and libraries.

Tip No 3: Don’t fall into the trap of “full time entertainer”. Children need to learn to amuse themselves and to find interesting and fun things to do in a safe environment. Depending on your child’s age you may need to help them start an activity but don’t take it over. And remember, it’s important to show an interest when your child is busy and absorbed and not just when they’re bored and seeking an audience.

Tip No 4: Set ground rules for computer and TV use such as turn taking and time limits. Although it’s ok for children to watch a little more TV or use the computer more often during the holidays, it’s important that children have a balance of indoor and outdoor activities. Set a time limit and monitor programs and computer games. If turn taking is a problem, set a timer and allocate a time limit for each child.

Tip No 5: It’s easier to look after children’s needs if we also look after our own needs as parents. Set aside some child free time. Organize a play at a friend’s house or enlist the help of relatives to give you a break. If our own needs as adults are neglected, it’s much more difficult to be calm, patient, and consistent with our children.

Professor Matt Sanders is founder of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program. Contact Elizabeth Kunz at Kinder Institute, 407-898-7798, or Elizabeth.kunz@thekinderinstitute.com or visit the web at www.triplep.net.

Professor Matt Sanders

For many families the morning rush hour is the most stressful part of the day. So how can you and the kids get out the door on time?

The key is organization — and the place to start is your own organization. Set up an effective routine. For example, if you need to leave by 8.15 am, don’t get out of bed at 7.30 am when you know it takes an hour to get ready.

The rule is get yourself ready first, before your child. To avoid last minute rushing prepare some things the night before and go to bed at a reasonable hour so you’ll wake up early.

I also recommend against having the television on first thing in the morning when preparing to go out. Better to make sure the children are dressed before breakfast and make any television watching dependent on being fully ready to leave.

Let your child know ahead of time that you’ll be going out and explain exactly what the day’s activities will be and their time requirements.

Younger children can learn the importance of organization by becoming involved in the process of getting ready rather than having everything done for them. Teaching children to get dressed by themselves is a chance to practice independent skills and it also saves you time.

You may like to try the “beat the clock” game. Your child’s goal is to be ready before the alarm clock sounds off. If your child wins, he earns a small treat or reward, such as a favorite snack in his lunch box.

Tell your child exactly what tasks he must do to be ready to leave and thus win the reward. Make sure you set the timer for a reasonable amount of time and avoid giving repeated instructions or nagging your child to hurry up.

Often it will only take a two-week period of beating the clock before the rewards and the clock are phased out. Remember to always praise your child’s achievements in learning better organization.

While you never want to become too time conscious, good organization, particularly in the mornings, certainly helps. Everything runs smoother if all family members know how to pull their weight.

Professor Matt Sanders is founder of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program. Contact Elizabeth Kunz at Kinder Institute, 407-898-7798, or Elizabeth.kunz@thekinderinstitute.com or visit the web at www.triplep.net.

Professor Matt Sanders

One of the questions I’m often asked by parents is how to find the right balance between work and family.

The first step is to understand the way work and family impact on each other.

Our emotional well-being can be threatened when pressures from either of these two worlds become too strong. Strained marital relationships, conflict with children, financial worries, or performance difficulties at work can all impact on our day to day functioning.

Research shows that family conflict results in increased work stress, low productivity, increased absenteeism, and industrial accidents. On the home front, work stress affects family communication with reduced role sharing, increased disagreements and health problems.

Behaviour problems in children are also a common result of relationship conflict and difficulties, with the lack of a consistent adequate financial income providing further stresses.

From all this we can see that the worlds of work and family have the power to seriously affect our basic quality of life and the quality of life of those around us.

So how do we go about achieving a balance between work and family?

Try rethinking priorities. Decide what is important and give priority to your children so their own emotional development is not placed at risk. Help your partner cope with the inevitable stresses of life. Talk with them about their problems and have a realistic expectation; but be assertive and don’t allow their stress to add significantly to your own.

Develop effective wind down and relaxation activities that don’t increase the stress of others. Regular exercise and healthy eating really do help you cope better. Try dealing with work stress through better work practices, such as more efficient management of time. This helps you get back a sense of control. Challenge unhelpful self-thoughts that can increase your stress.

A greater flexibility in working arrangements may be possible, depending on the nature of your work. If not, remember to negotiate with your partner for a sharing of family tasks that may ease the burden.

Top Tips

How to prevent family from disrupting work:
• Be organised, especially in the mornings
• Teach children to do things for themselves
• Develop a leaving home routine and have some basic ground rules
• Avoid unnecessary conflict before work
• Avoid scheduling important early morning meetings
• Make sure you and your partner work together as a team
• Choose quality childcare
• Make family your priority when you are with them.

How to prevent stress at work affecting home life:
• Have realistic expectations about your work
• Make work a priority while you’re at work
• Complete difficult tasks early rather than just before leaving for home
• Be assertive in letting your needs be known and find out about workplace entitlements
• Use commuting time to unwind
• Avoid being overcommitted
• Make sure you take holidays when they’re due
• Manage negative thoughts with effective coping statements.
• Develop a relaxing coming home routine

Professor Matt Sanders is founder of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program. Contact Elizabeth Kunz at Kinder Institute, 407-898-7798, or Elizabeth.kunz@thekinderinstitute.com or visit the web at www.triplep.net.

Professor Matt Sanders

As children grow up they need to learn to follow instructions and requests. After all, one of the most basic human communication skills that we learn through childhood is to respond to instructions and rules appropriately. As adults this ability helps us learn new skills, keep out of dangerous situations, abide by the laws of our community, and carry out tasks on behalf of others.

The instructions we give to children can be used to stop particular behaviour, such as “Stop pulling the dog’s tail” or used to initiate some action, such as “Pat the dog gently instead like this”.

So why is it that I sometimes see parents who describe their children as ‘stubborn’, ‘headstrong’, or ‘determined’ and for whom every bath, mealtime, family outing, shopping trip or car ride is a stressful battle of wills with raised voices and frayed tempers?

When children refuse to cooperate with parental requests, the reason can be related to how those instructions have been given. Over time, a certain pattern of instruction giving and responding may develop that will virtually ensure a child will refuse to follow instructions most of the time.

If this happens, you may need to seek professional help. To prevent it happening, parents should be careful not to fall into several common traps when giving instructions:

Too many. The more instructions you give, the more opportunities to disobey. Apart from making the child feel picked on, giving too many instructions is also exhausting for parents.

Too few. Children may sometimes seem disobedient because no one has taken the time to give them clear information on what is expected.

Too hard. Don’t expect a 3-year-old to tidy up a very messy room on their own — they just aren’t old enough.

Too vague. Shouting your child’s name, then pausing and frowning at them because they are jumping on the couch might not be of much help if they have also just teased their sister and hit their brother. Your child will be unclear as to what behaviour you actually consider a problem. It is also not a good idea to phrase an instruction as a question. If you ask “Would you like to go to bed now?” when you really aren’t giving your child a choice, be prepared for them to say “No”.

Poorly timed. Asking your child to do something while they are busy watching their favourite television show will probably result in them ignoring the instruction.

Shouting from a distance. Instructions shouted from one room to another are often ignored simply because parents are not there to back up the instruction.

Emotionally laden. Children are greatly affected by the emotional tone of what parents say to them. Calling children “stupid” or an “idiot” shows disapproval of the child rather than the child’s behaviour.

Although at times it can be difficult, parents should work to control expressions of anger when giving children instructions.

So what’s the alternative?

Try approaching the whole issue of instructions by first thinking about what you actually want your child to do in a given situation. Make sure you distinguish between situations where children have a choice and when they do not. Choose words that are clear and direct and make sure you have your child’s attention before you begin. With younger children, bend down to their eye level within an arm’s length away.

Say exactly what you want your child to do. If you want them to stop doing something, be sure to tell them what to do instead as well as the consequences of disobeying. Give your child time to cooperate and praise them when they do so, or carry out the consequence if they refuse.

Professor Matt Sanders is founder of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program. Contact Elizabeth Kunz at Kinder Institute, 407-898-7798, or Elizabeth.kunz@thekinderinstitute.com or visit the web at www.triplep.net.

Most of us can look back at our schooldays and remember fondly the hours spent playing and talking with our friends. Sometimes these best of school friends relationships don’t survive the transition to adulthood and the emerging of an independent personality. Other times, an early friendship may develop into a lifelong mateship.
But no matter how brief or lasting, childhood friendships play an important role in the way we develop as adults.

In psychological terms, interacting with friends helps children to develop such important attributes as physical skill, language ability, how to solve problems, and showing consideration to others. Without friends children can loose confidence in themselves, suffer low self-esteem and feel sad and stressed.

Children who have friends are likely to feel happy and enjoy their time at school. Those who form strong positive friendships in primary school are also less likely to develop behavioural and emotional problems later in their teenage years. Their friends can provide support and encouragement when dealing with difficult issues and an informal forum to share the confusion and worries of adolescence.

For some children, already existing behavioural problems will make it difficult for them to make friends. Aggressive and negative children are often rejected by their peers, who simply don’t want to play with a child who bullies, bosses or hurts other children.

A lack of basic social skills, coupled with rejection by peers is likely to see a child gravitate toward other disruptive and aggressive children. Rather than forming positive friendships, they may find the membership of a group or gang that encourages antisocial behaviour such as stealing or skipping school a more preferable alternative.

As parents it is therefore important that we encourage our children to make friends during their school years. However it is the right of every parent to judge the positive and negative influences on their young child of certain friendships. It is a good idea to encourage your child to invite their friends over to play at home so that you know how your child acts among their peers.

Making friends in childhood, as in adult life, differs depending on personality. Some people just seem born to have a wide circle of friends. They may be popular through their outgoing nature, verbal skills and genuine interest in people and relationships. That doesn’t mean however that the quieter, more shy personalities amongst us should suffer.

If you think your child is having problems making friends there are steps you can take to help them gain confidence and skills without attempting to change their basic nature.

It is important to discuss with your child any problems you think they might have making friends. You might not always be right about your concerns. Some children just don’t talk very much to adults about their friends or activities at school, or may be more outgoing away from the family environment.

If your child is finding it hard to form friendships, discussing with them things such as who they talk to at school, what they have tried in the past and what they think might work in the future can often help your child feel more positive about their own ability to make friends. Talking with your child’s teacher or other adults who know your child can provide useful feedback on how your child behaves around other children.

So what are some practical suggestions to help your child make friends?

Firstly, it is good to remember that one major way children learn how to interact with other people is by watching how their parents deal with others. If you talk to people in a polite and friendly way, your child will see this and be more likely to model such behaviour themselves.

To reinforce this incidental type of learning, you could draw up a list of behaviours that helps encourage friendships, such as using a friendly voice, sharing toys, asking for things politely, smiling, and taking turns when playing.

You can also help your child learn these skills by practicing them in the form of a fun role-playing game. Ask your child to practise using all the skills on your list, with you pretending to be one of their school friends. Be sure to answer any questions your child has about the process of making friends.

Remember too to give your child lots of positive feedback for their efforts in making friends. If you praise your child when they try new skills it will increase their chances of success through encouraging them to keep trying.

Apart from individual skills, there are of course certain activities other than at school that can provide ample opportunities for friendships. If your child shows any interest in sport or other pursuits like music, craft or scouts, then encourage therm to join a group. These will present ideal situations for your child to meet other children and make friends.

Of course, if your child’s personality is not attuned toward certain activities, don’t try to force them to join a group they will not be interested in.

Professor Matt Sanders is founder of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program. Contact Elizabeth Kunz at Kinder Institute, 407-898-7798, or Elizabeth.kunz@thekinderinstitute.com or visit the web at www.triplep.net.