Understanding conflict resolution for kids is a prerequisite of a happy family. To become a good teacher or parent for kids, you should have good communication and modeling skills. For example, kids learn more with what they see in their surroundings than what they hear. Besides, they always watch how their parents and teachers deal with conflict.

How can you teach your little ones conflict resolution skills?

Conflict resolution skills are essential in the development of a healthy friendship among the little ones. However, kids may not know how to manage conflicts and emotions in difficult friendship situations unless they learn the skills from adults.

Here are the four steps to conflict resolution for kids; 

1. Stop
2. Cool Down
3. Talk
4. Repair

1) Stop

Toddlers and infants respond poorly to uncomfortable situations because they have not learned the essential skills. That is why they scream, kick, talk back, yell or fight when faced with an argument or problem. Teaching the children to speak up with calmness, confidence, and firmness will stop conflict among their peers. Additionally, we must teach our children to communicate their needs healthily and speak out to stop arguing.

2) Cool Down

After the conflict has stopped, the kids should have a chance to calm down. Giving them a moment to cool down will reduce their anger and emotions. Then ask them to choose what they want to do as they cool e,g they can run in place, cry, draw, stretch, take a deep breath or scream in a pillow before dealing with the conflict. Taking a break will reduce the anger and make it easy to talk about the issue in a healthy way.

3) Talk

At this stage, every child should talk freely and share their feelings genuinely. To help preschoolers, they should know that it is not time to blame one another but to speak out how they feel – encouraging them to use the I- statement to avoid blames and more arguments. Additionally, learning to listen and speak when given an opportunity is essential for kids to prevent interruption and fights.

4) Repair

Immediately after the children have expressed their emotions, they are free to resolve conflict with better solutions. Teaching them how to solve different problems will make them able to handle all kinds of issues. Therefore, making posters for them ahead of time will help them make references quickly and deal with the conflict effectively.

Being a Role Model for Your Children

Parents should show a good example to children. They should not only teach the children how to handle conflict but also do what they teach. By letting the children learn from how they handle conflict as adults. As a parent, you should practice what you teach and know how to manage conflict for the child to learn from you.

Teaching Healthy Conflict Resolution Skills to Kids

Teaching conflict resolution for kids will create a harmonious family and a peaceful society. To have a better community in the future, we must teach our kids these valuable strategies for dealing with conflict. That will even boost their social skills.

Contact us now to learn more about strategies for conflict resolution for kids.