Primary school friendship issues

Primary school friendship issues

Sorry long winded story so please bear with me.

So my daughter is now 6yrs old turning 7 in September.
She is such a beautiful little one. She is positive, outgoing and extremely empathetic ( a consistent comment from all child care teachers, and her prep and now yr 1 teacher). She is at the most beautiful small catholic school of 180 students.
She is struggling with school work and the school has been incredibly at getting onto it early and had started her in a learning support program. She has been assessed by a SP at school and have identified some major learning deficits - and has advised that we have her further assessment by an educational psychologist for a potential dyslexia diagnosis ( which has been booked for October)
She is extremely bright, bubbly, happy child.
The problems were seeming to face every night is :- FRIENDSHIPS šŸ˜±

Her class is extremely boy heavy -20 boys and 7 girls.
All the girls have seemed to pair up and now have ā€œBBFsā€. she is left out.
I have always encouraged her to be friends with everyone, there is no need to have just 1 best friend. But she is always left out. She will play with girls from different grades but has only connected with one girl in grade 3.
She was part of a little group of 3 last year but they have now become a group of 2 and my daughter is on the out.
She comes home most afternoons and tell she he has had a good day, but by dinner time all the walls fall down and sheā€™s a mess.
Itā€™s everything from someone looking at her the wrong way, snapping back at her, not letting her play with them at lunch time, to disputes at OSHC and not letting her play with the other kids.

She is very much liked by all her peers and teachers alike, but sheā€™s struggling to find that one friend that she can depend on and unfortunately thatā€™s not happening.

Initially I was very supportive to her emotional needs, tried to plan out with her ways to resolve the situation, offer her alternatives . But she comes home each night exactly the same.

I honestly donā€™t think there is anything that school can do as sheā€™s not being ā€œbulliedā€ but sheā€™s so emotional- I need help to make her more resilient. These issues are going to come in every walk of life and she needs the coping strategies to deal with it, but Iā€™m at a lost of what to say to support her.

Changing school is the last option, and not one that I look highly upon. She is going though a lot of learning support, and assessments. Her teacher is AMAZING, the school support and environment is beautiful, and she REALLY loves her school ( if she was unhappy on all areas of her schooling life then of course I would consider removing her to another school).

I guess Iā€™m asking how do I instil more resilience, what advice do I give her to help her through this stage, do I need to get her into a child psychologist to help with all the emotions, or is this completely normal and just a phase we need to ride through with the current emotional support Iā€™m giving????

Posted in:  Kids

5 Replies

Anonymous

Speak with the teachers and explain to them, they should pair her up and encourage play with other kids. have a play day and invite the girls over or all to meet at the park or a birthday party. Anything. Talk with other mums and these things and explain to them. Donā€™t push it too much. Some kids just donā€™t click or exclude themselves. I think the play date option would be a great start.

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Anonymous

Child psychologist are fantastic for this type of thing. They will encourage and get to any underlying issues that may need to be resolved.

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Anonymous

Tell the teacher they can help with this. Making sure kids move around, sit with different people each day or week, work in different small groups, table groups, and pairs. Theh will also help with friendships at breaks if needed, schools most usually run groups or activities at lunch time to help those lost or solo kids.

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Anonymous

The school can definitely help. My daughter has had the same two best friends for 4 years and if they were away or playing with others she ended up playing by herself. So I spoke to her teacher. Her teacher said she would pair her up with a few of the girls in her class and encourage them to interact during class time. It worked. Now if her best friends are away or playing with others she plays with another girl that is in her class.
Start looking at social skills and getting her teacher to help her during class and with the social skills as well.
She will get there eventually but definitely get the school to help.

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Anonymous

My daughter was having similar problems in term 1, I asked her to stand back and see if there was anyone else being left out that may need a friend (including boys) she now regularly plays with with boys and plays sport with them during recess and lunch and is so much happier

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