How Your Child May See Things:
‘Other children get to join in but not me.’
When a situation goes differently from what
your child expects, they may get upset.
Your Goal:
Helping your child handle a difficult experience by knowing what to think and do when other children choose not to include them.
How You Get There:
Start by giving your child perspective – that this happens to everyone.
That’s Social Understanding!
Provide Social Information:
Let your child know that joining in can be difficult for other children too.
Recognise how they feel and let them know it’s
okay to feel disappointed, angry or left out; or have mixed feelings.
You might want to share about when you’ve been
left out and how it made you feel.
Your child may struggle with the flexibility of knowing what to think and do
when joining in gets difficult. Having no ‘back-up plan’ means they get stuck
on ‘I want to join and it’s not happening’.
Prepare them for the possibility that this may happen. Help them with a
‘back-up plan’ of what they can do instead; so they can move forward.