Cooperation is an essential skill as there will always be times when you need to interact with others to get a job done.
While in personal endeavours you will be able to choose your partners or team, in a work environment and other scenarios this won’t be possible.
That’s when t’s essential that you know how to cooperate with others. It’s a skill that should be taught when you are young.
There are several ways in which you can help children learn to cooperate:
Early Learning
Registering your child with a good early education centre, such as this early learning Chatswood, will help them learn to cooperate.
This is because children will need to work with others in order to share the available resources, play together, and complete the tasks set at the early learning centre.
All of these actions will help a child to learn the importance of cooperation and how to cooperate.
Best of all, they won’t be thinking about it, they will simply be doing it. This increases their ability to cooperate with others in the future, even if they don’t always see eye-to-eye.
The early learning centre will help your child develop cooperation skills.
Take Turns Doing Things
You can start this as soon as they are able to pass you something and take it back. That should be approximately 6-9 months.
Taking it in turns to pass and receive is a form of cooperation. Best of all, to your young child, it’s simply a fun game.
As they get better coordination skills you can work together on puzzles, taking it in turns to put a piece in. You can even use the same technique to put the toys away.
Your child will learn the pleasure of cooperation and discover that it helps to get things done, freeing up more time for other things.
Problem Solve Together
There are many problems that children will experience throughout the day. These can be as simple as your child wanting to draw on the wall and you saying no.
But, this is more than just a chance to set rules and show them there are right and wrong things to do.
Take the opportunity to help them come up with another solution, such as drawing in a book. By making them think about it you are cooperating and they are learning to problem-solve.
It will make it much easier for them to solve problems later in life.
Praise Them
Children love to be told they have done well. Remember to praise them every time they cooperate with you or others.
This will help them to feel rewarded for their behaviour and associate cooperation as a good thing to do.
If you can instil this into your child they will find it a lot easier to achieve their goals in life.
They are more likely to cooperate well with others, be able to see the skills others bring to the group, and distribute work fairly.
Best of all, it starts by simply interacting and playing with your child.