Making Friends Online: The Benefits and Challenges for Kids With Social Skills Issues
Many kids with social skills issues have difficulty making friends in school. Some of them feel much more comfortable making friends online (in forums or video game fantasy worlds), where they...
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Parents often feel that all online social connections are bad. And I will tell you at a certain age, at an age below 12 or 13, I would actually agree with that. For kids that are socially isolated or awkward, sometimes they can go online and find a community online. For instance, they have an interest that kids in their school do not share. They might be able to go online and find a whole community of friends who are interested in their particular interest. That's amazing and fantastic, and maybe they'll build confidence and actually get some positive feedback from their knowledge and their connection. What we want with those children, though, is to take those skills that they're learning online and be able to translate them into real life. Wh...
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Parents often feel that all online social connections are bad. And I will tell you at a certain age, at an age below 12 or 13, I would actually agree with that. For kids that are socially isolated or awkward, sometimes they can go online and find a community online. For instance, they have an interest that kids in their school do not share. They might be able to go online and find a whole community of friends who are interested in their particular interest. That's amazing and fantastic, and maybe they'll build confidence and actually get some positive feedback from their knowledge and their connection. What we want with those children, though, is to take those skills that they're learning online and be able to translate them into real life. Wh...
