We have been combining our education, real-life skills, and love of children into a successful workshop for children for 6 years. To find more in-depth plans for you to improve a child's social skills, be sure to pick up our book—The Wanna Play Program.
Making Eye Contact for Interaction
“The eyes are the windows to the soul,” the proverb says. This is why they deserve a unit of their own. This is the beginning of all interactions. Eye contact with infants is the key form of communication. It is how they learn about the world around them. Children use eye contact to develop their perception of trust and what is a constant in the world. Through the years of development, children use eye contact to explore and learn. It is key in learning the forms of communication such as language, gesture, and expression. Without eye contact, we would be unable to get information about the world around us.
The key to success in this program is an emphasis on developing eye-contact frequency and duration. There are many factors that come into play when we see children who are not making eye contact. Some of these include visual sensitivity, auditory sensitivity, sensory over-stimulation, or even a lack of understanding of the role of eye contact in interaction. We need to remember, as those responsible for the social development of a child, that if the child is not making eye contact, he or she is not engaging, attending, or focusing.
Children are tricky when it comes to avoiding eye contact. They are more vested in avoidance than we are. This avoidance is a safety mechanism for them in some form and therefore they will try to hold on to it as much as they can
Excerpt from:
Wanna Play: Friendship Skills for Preschool and Elementary Grades, Ross, M.S.Ed., Ruth Herron; Roberts-Pacchionne, Beth, Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, CA:2006