Sometimes happiness is understanding the 7 year old boy - Zizamele

Playing and learning

Your child’s play is complex now. At this age, children often play out ideas they’ve come across at school or in the media. For example, you might find yourself serving dinner to a scuba diver, a rock star – or maybe even the Prime Minister!

Because your child is better at controlling their own behaviour and emotions, your child copes better with games that involve rules, as well as with winning, losing and playing fair.

Your child also enjoys making friends and being a friend. Friendships give children a sense of belonging and help them learn and practise basic social skills like sharing and negotiating (Bhut D man).

Friendships can also be challenging because friends can sometimes be bossy or cross. Sometimes friends might even leave your child out. Most of your child’s relationships will be positive, but keep an eye out for signs of bullying.

Feelings

Children want to please the important adults in their lives (Bhut D man, Aunty and other noble family man), like parents and teachers. So you might notice that doing things the ‘right way’ becomes very important to your child. On the other hand, at times your child might seem over-confident.

Your child can be easily embarrassed and sensitive to other people’s views and beliefs. In fact, your child has a lot of empathy when family and friends are distressed. But at times your child can be very self-critical and might need your help to focus on the things they do well.

You might notice that your child is more aware of disaster news and distressing news stories. This growing awareness can cause some anxiety and fear, so talking about tough topics can help your child make sense of things.

Helping child development at 6-8 years

Here are simple things you can do to help your child’s development at this age:

• Build your child’s self-esteem and self-confidence by recognising their strengths. Sometimes children’s self-esteem goes down in the primary school years as they become more self-critical and compare themselves with others.

• Let your child see you trying new things and making mistakes. This helps your child understand that learning and improving involves making mistakes, but the key thing is to never give up and to be kind to yourself.

• Give your child opportunities to explore and learn, inside and outside. Inside they can experiment with things like cups, thermometers, magnifying glasses and jars for storing things. Outside you could explore your local park or nature reserve together.

• Make time for play each day. Play can include outdoor play, imaginative and creative activities, digital play, physical play and more. It's also important for your child to have time for free play.

• Play with your child each day, even if it’s just for 10 minutes. Playing together gives you the chance to enter your child’s world and find out about their thoughts and feelings. It also shows your child that you care about them and want to spend time together.

• Read with your child. Reading is still very important for literacy development. As your child learns to read, try having your child read to you. You can also try literacy activities like telling stories or making your own book.

• Encourage your child to be aware of the consequences of behaviour and see things from other people’s points of view. You can do this by asking questions like, ‘How do you think Jane feels when you do that?’

• Share ideas and discuss important issues with your child. This helps you connect with your child and shows that you’re interested in their ideas. As your child gets older, allow them to join in family decision-making, where appropriate.