How to help your toddler make friends

Here's how to boost your toddler's confidence and help him make friends:

Make him feel good about himself

Build up his confidence with lots of praise and telling him you love him. Result? He'll believe other kids love him too. Toddlers with low self-esteem can find it a challenge to make new friends

Be a good role model

Let him see how much you value your friends by how well you treat them and how much you enjoy their company

Sharing and caring

Practise sharing toys and taking turns with him. Hopefully he'll find it easier to share his things. But...

...be realistic

Brace yourself for plenty of tears and tantrums as your toddler learns how to be a social animal. Goes with the territory

Two's company

Toddlers can find it overwhelming having too many children round at once - there's only so much sharing a 2-year-old can do! Stick to inviting one at a time and make the play date fairly short - an hour is fine

Have fun!

Loosen up and enjoy watching your toddler interact and make friends 

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