Parents and other caregivers can do a lot to help kids succeed socially. Your kids learn a lot from their friends and these are things you can't teach them, no matter how much you want to. Friends do become a child's chosen family. If his social life is going well, he will gain confidence. If he or she has trouble connecting, it hurts and can make her feel sad and withdrawn and lonely. So here are some important tips to help your child form good friendships from an early age.

 Help your child understand that he will not always get his way. Kids who do not have negotiating skills lack a basic skill for making friends. While you are playing with your child you may want to give into their every demand or always let them win a game. Resist this urge as your child gets older since this sends a false message that things and other people will always bend to his will.
 Help your child learn productive strategies for getting what he wants. For example, he might try just grabbing the toy out of his friend's hand. If he does that, he needs to learn that it's not the best way of getting what he wants because it will lead to fighting and time-outs. The child who is successful in developing friendships will learn that he needs to negotiate a trade, to wait patiently, or to find something else equally fun to play with. The key to this is helping your child develop communications skills. Compliment him freely when he shows a development in productive communication skills.
 Help your child by being a good role model with your own friendships. Never underestimate how much your child is watching or listening to you. Do you treat your friends well or bad mouth them privately? Realize that your child no matter how young is looking to you to set an example of how to establish and maintain friendships.
 Help you child by teaching them the "manners of friendship". Many children seem to lack the social skills necessary to get along with anyone else. Small children need to learn to say thank you and wave bye-bye. Older kids need to learn about hurt feelings, including what causes them and how to deal with them. Studies have shown that when kids possess theses social skills they are able too much more easily establish friendships than other kids their age who do not have these types of skills. You will help your child if you have them develop the knack of being friendly, smiling, saying hi, asking questions, and paying compliments.
 Help your child by giving them social settings to develop friendships in. Keep the following things in mind though: keep play dates short and sweet. Young children have a limited attention span even for play. If your child is bossy, have the play date on neutral turf and agree beforehand on which toys will be shared. If you have a shy child, it might be best to match him with a younger child so he has a chance to be the leader. And finally help the play get started by having some fun projects ready to go. Coloring, sculpting, blowing bubbles or any art project is a great way to get things going.