‘It’s a Jungle out there!’
How often have we resonated with this statement? For us adults,however, it is something we are used to on a daily basis. In the case of our little ones who are just setting out into the world, it’s an entirely different ball game!
Teaching ‘Concrete’ Skills to kids is not the only thing that’s going to prepare them for that Concrete Jungle out there. This is exactly where Developing Soft Skills steps in. The significance of soft skills cannot be undermined, where it comes to helping children break yet another ‘umbilical cord’ of sorts. To help them gain true freedom in a largely unfair world.
Over the course of this article, you will learn everything from gauging the difference between Life Skills and Soft Skills, to teaching your kids how to imbibe those Important Soft Skills. Read on, to discover how there’s far more ‘substance’ to those Soft Skills, than their name might imply!
Table of Contents
- The Significance of Soft Skills: Soft Skills vs Hard Skills
- Life Skills and Soft Skills
- Developing Soft Skills: Teaching Important Soft Skills to Children
The Significance of Soft Skills: Soft Skills vs Hard Skills
What are Soft Skills, really? Broadly speaking, they can be defined as a grouping of key skills like Communication, Personal Habits and even Optimism! Indeed, skills that are often neglected by many people in their quest for other skills.
Talking about those ‘other skills’, they are known, quite interestingly, as ‘Hard Skills’. When we speak of hard skills, we are talking about things like IQ and Academic Skills. The very skills of kids that parents proudly flaunt in front of friends and family.
So, while Hard Skills are the ones we can easily pinpoint, Soft Skills are those that are largely ‘intangible.’ That being said, this in no way implies that they are any less important than Hard Skills. In fact, in some industries, employers actually place more emphasis on Soft Skills!
Life Skills and Soft Skills
We have touched upon the essence of Soft Skills and Hard Skills.Now you might ask, ‘What on earth are Life Skills?’
Life Skills, in a nutshell, are the ‘essential’ skills that are needed by our kids, to help them function in daily life. Skills like Self awareness and Decision Making. On the other hand, Soft Skills are differentiated from those Life Skills, by the fact that they help kids ‘up the ante’ when it comes to performing better in the world.
It’s clear, then, that Life Skills are the skills that lay the ‘framework’ for more enhanced skills. Namely, the Soft Skills that help our children function even more effectively than they normally would.
Developing Soft Skills: Teaching Important Soft Skills to Children
Now’s the really interesting part. Want your child to develop soft skills at an early age? This section is a Masterclass in just that!
Presenting the most Important Soft Skills every child needs to be armed with, and ways to get your kids to imbibe them.
- Communication
- Be a role model. If you communicate clearly with them, they will push to do the same.
- Get them to open up. One of the best ways to do this would be to get them to talk to people outside their closed ‘inner circle’ of friends and family.
- Good Manners
- Teach them Manner Basics. This includes saying ‘Please’ and ‘Thank You’ and ‘Excuse Me’ if they need to interrupt someone.
- Show them yourself. Again, it is you as a parent that needs to set that bar high. For instance, looking them in the eye when you speak, and smiling.
- Understanding Teamwork
- Teach your kids the power of sharing. Show them that when they share their tasks with others, they can get a whole lot more work done, in a far shorter period of time.
- Let them build trust. When children learn to trust others, especially kids from diverse backgrounds, they are able to collaborate with a sense of ease.
- Confidence-Building
- Have them speak in public. When children speak in public, be it on stage or in the classroom, they build their confidence by leaps and bounds. Note: You can even get them to do this, by having them speak in front of friends and family, to begin with.
- The right body language. If you simply teach them to stand ‘straight and tall’ when they speak to others, you will help them garner a rapt audience. Needless to say, that will do them a world of good.
- Empathy
- Listening to the problems of others. When they listen to what other people are going through, children can better identify with their emotions.
- Responding in caring fashion. Empathy is only strengthened when kids ‘show’ their care for others in tangible ways.
Communication is Key, they say. Here’s how you can get your child to communicate better!
At the end of the day, if we have raised our children to be well-mannered, that’s half the job of a parent!
As little children, we hold onto things too much, for fear they will be taken away from us. The same applies to the work they are given.
Of course we want our children to be more confident versions of themselves, but how do we achieve this?
Of course, there’s no Intelligence without Emotional Intelligence!
There’s far more to those Soft Skills than meets the eye, where it comes to the development of your child. Start today, and help them imbibe these skills that will shape them into the best versions of themselves in the days to come!
