One of the best ways to develop friendships with others is to play games.  When kids play friendship-building games, they are increasing their positive interactions with one another and developing bonds.  Whether you’re hosting a birthday party, a family dinner or a good old fashioned play date, take a look at our suggested games to help improve your child’s communication skills and win meaningful friendships.

Control Tower

ONE MEMBER OF THE GROUP IS BLINDFOLDED AND THEIR PARTNER VERBALLY GUIDES THEM THROUGH AN OBSTACLE COURSE. WHEN THEY HAVE SUCCESSFULLY REACHED THE END OF THE COURSE, ROLES ARE SWAPPED AND THE COURSE CHANGED.

Good for: Communication, team-work.

Silent Interview

Similar to the game of Charades, except it involves communicating information about oneself. Split the group up into pairs and have each pair tell each other three things about themselves – but without speaking. When they have had enough time, bring everyone back into the group and have each person introduce their partner, and the things they learned – or at least the things they think they learned!

Good for: Getting to know each other, building bonds, non-verbal communication.

Face Time

Children are asked to identify moods based on facial expressions.  Sit everyone in a small circle, close enough to see eachother’s faces well.  Children draw an emotion out of a bag and demonstrate this using their facial expressions.  The first one to guess wins.

Good for: Promoting emotional intelligence.

Ball of compliments

Gather your children in a circle and throw a soft ball to one of them.  They must then call another child by their name and give him or her a compliment.  Encourage the children to say things about their friend’s personality such as ‘you make me laugh’ or ‘you are a good listener’.  After, talk to your child about how it feels when a friend says something nice about them.

Good for:  Building bonds, empathy.

In Common

This game is a great activity for breaking down barriers. Kids are put in small groups, ideally with a mix of kids they aren’t already friends with. Each child has to find 5 things they have in common with other children.  Start the group off by asking one child to state something about himself e.g. ‘i like to ride my bike’.  Kids not only learn a lot about each other, but also find out that they have more in common with kids from different social groups than they thought.

Good for: Communication, forming bonds.