Activities to teach children to resolve conflicts

Play is a very important and fundamental part of the child's life and development and is the way to elaborate and express feelings and to develop all kinds of intellectual, social competences and morals. Children's play and activities are a very useful resource for working with children, and in this

Play is a very important and fundamental part of the child's life and development and is the way to elaborate and express feelings and to develop all kinds of intellectual, social competences and morals.

Children's play and activities are a very useful resource for working with children, and in this case they will serve as a resource to teach children to solve problems and conflicts.

How to teach children to resolve conflicts

In these games conflict situations arise, or that use some aspect related to them and allow to experience personally, with situations taken out of reality, the different alternatives that we have to solve the problems to the that we face.

The steps to teach children to solve conflicts can be summarized in:

- Help the child to identify the problem and express it correctly.

- Help the child to generate solutions. "How can we solve this problem?" Allow the child to generate a variety of positive solutions to the problem and help him generate ideas if he can not come up with any ideas (we can set an example in the past). We can see which solutions are positive and which are negative, (Would sticking be a good solution?)

- Try one of the solutions. Part of problem solving is trial and error, so if the first solution does not work, we'll try another one!- Remind the child of the

steps taken to solve the problem . Remembering the process of solving problems, from identifying the problem of finding a solution that works, will help the child internalize the steps so that they can work towards the solution of a problem more independently later.-

Praise the child when solving the problem, and reinforce those behaviors. Activity ideas to teach children to solve their problems

At home, we can use stories, games, or from everyday situations to promote the acquisition and development of skills that help our child solve problems and conflicts.

The readings and

the stories are a very useful tool for parents to teach and help the little ones to solve problems and conflicts. We can include them in your daily reading routine or in the bedtime before bedtime. We can read it or read it, and as we read or after reading we can ask some questions, how are you: - What has happened to the protagonist or the protagonists?

- How have you solved the problem?

- What could he have done? Other solutions or alternatives.

- Does this ever happen to us?

- What would we do or what do we do in a similar situation?

The story helps us to raise problems if we need to focus on the child, but rather

the solutions are posed through another character and it helps them reflect and seek creative solutions to conflicts and problems. Some stories:

- Making Friends, This is not the way to play, Elena and the blue road, is part of the Cuento Contigo Collection, aimed at children between 6 and 10 years old (and their families), especially those who are more restless, more impulsive, who have more difficulty controlling their emotions. They are especially indicated for children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Asperger but we can use them with all children, with or without difficulties.

- Begoña Ibarrola has a magnificent collection of books and stories to work on emotional intelligence, coexistence, conflicts ...

- Dos Monstruos. David McKee Two monsters live on opposite sides of a mountain, and they can not agree on whether the day begins or the night ends. The monsters insult each other and throw rocks, until they make a surprising discovery. Recommended age: + 3

We can also make

cooperative games in which reaching the solution is not possible without the joint work of all those involved . For example, we can play Tangram, or do group puzzles, but we can do it under the condition that we can not talk to each other, or that we only have one hand to play and analyze later what has happened, why it has been more difficult to solve the puzzle, the importance of communicating with each other, asking for help, etc ...In short, it is about children through games or readings being able to acquire skills or practice how to solve day-to-day problems, or conflicts with other children, siblings, or with their own parents, who stop to think and analyze situations to arrive at a satisfactory solution.