Best of Friends
19 Dec 07

Making friends is seldom easy, and although children sometimes make it look as if it is, it can be as difficult, scary and worrying a prospect for them as it is for us. Shyness, lack of confidence and, sometimes, a lack of social skills can stand in the way of your child developing meaningful and lasting friendships.
As parents and adults we know that making friends in childhood can help develop a sense of self-worth, educate us in dealing with conflict and disagreements, and enable us to learn how to interact with our peers day-to-day.

Childhood friendships can also offer a valuable source of support, love, protection and influence outside the family unit. Research has shown that children who have a close friend at age 11 have a greater sense of self-esteem as adults. In contrast, a failure to make friends can leave a child feeling depressed, lacking in confidence and generally ‘left out’.  These feelings can last into adulthood.

Socially, children develop more quickly if they have friends they can talk to.  Also, at school, lessons and free time are more fun and productive if a child has friends. So how, as a parent, can you help your child develop meaningful and lasting friendships?

Best of Friends sets out to help parents understand friendship, why it’s important and how they can help their child make and keep friends, from the first steps of encouraging them to share their toys, right through to building their confidence and helping them find and nurture the friendships they’ll hopefully take into adulthood.

This essential book also offers solutions and quick fixes for dealing with crises of confidence as well as undesirable behaviour. The final chapter of the book answers a series of frequently asked questions to give parents quick advice on common issues.

Best of Friends will enable parents to:

• Find out what friendships mean to children at different ages and stages.
• Learn how they can build and boost their child’s confidence and self-esteem.
• Help their child to develop and learn to depend on their own sense of independence.
• Teach their child the skills they need to develop friendships and how they can influence, negotiate, share and defend.
• Learn about bullying: how to recognise the signs, how they can prevent it and how it affects their child, whether victim or perpetrator.

	Best of Friends
	Author	Hilary Pereira
	Pub Date	1 Nov 2007
	Price	£9.99
	Publisher	Prentice Hall Life
	ISBN10	0273714309
	ISBN13	9780273714309
		Click here for further information or to purchase Best of Friends.

For further information please contact:
Elie Ball, PR Manager
t: 07803 392 710
e: elie.ball@pearson.com

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All information and prices correct at time of writing.