Make Social Learning Stick: Cures for Winter Break Boredom

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Does your child ever come to you and say, “I’m so bored”?  It is totally understandable.  School is out, and routines have been disrupted.  When kids complain about boredom, take the initiative to use this extra time during the winter break to stimulate your child’s social and emotional development.  Here are a few activities designed to take the boredom out of winter break, all at no cost!Build a Fort:  This is a great way to get your child’s creative, imaginative juices flowing.  Gather a collection of sofa cushions, pillows, and blankets and see what type of fort your child comes up with.  Pretend to have a party, picnic, or sleepover and invite your child’s favorite stuffed animals or a sibling or neighbor to join in.  Practice inviting, greeting, and being a friendly host.Story Time:  Find some picture books without writing and have your child explain what they think is happening on each page and what the story is about.  After looking at the book, the child can retell or summarize the story for you or a friend to practice sequencing and conversational skills.Freeze Dance:  This is a fun, easy way to practice respect for personal space as well as self-regulation skills.  Get a group together and assign a person to start and stop the music.  Once the music starts, everyone begins dancing and when it stops, everyone must freeze.  Whoever moves is out.  Remind your child to be aware of other peoples' personal space so no one gets pushed or knocked over.  The ability to start and stop an activity, especially a fun one like dancing, is great for practicing impulse control and self-regulation.Showtime:  Watch a movie at home and while watching, ask your child to comment on the actors’ behaviors — how they are feeling, what’s going on in the story, etc.  Help your child build perspective-taking skills by discussing the actions of one or more of the actors and how this makes other people feel.  If you see disrespectful behavior, stress to your child that such behavior is not OK in real life.  Movies are full of teachable moments that you can use to help children develop an understanding of different emotions and consideration for other peoples' feelings as well as their own.Talent Show:  Put on a family talent show.  Let each person decide if they want to sing, play music, dance, act out a scene, or tell a joke.  Use objects from around the house to create costumes, props, and microphones.  Invite other family members or neighbors to join in.  Participating in a show can build a child’s social confidence, self-expression, and both nonverbal and verbal language.  Stepping into another person’s shoes by acting out a role also fosters perspective-taking skills.Get creative over winter break, and embrace the down time to nurture your child’s social competence.  Put these activities into play and see how boredom can quickly be transformed into fun.  With the right tools and knowledge, parents can serve as both coaches and cheerleaders for their children and become the glue that makes the learning stick! ***Elizabeth Sautter, M.A., CCC-SLP is co-director and co-owner of Communication Works (cwtherapy.com), a private practice in Oakland, California, offering speech, language, social, and occupational therapy.  She is the co-author of the Whole Body Listening Larry (socialthinking.com) books. Her most recent book is Make Social Learning Stick! How to Guide and Nurture Social Competence Through Everyday Routines and Activities (aapcpublishing.net). She can be reached at makesociallearningstick@gmail.com or follow her: website, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter.