Skills necessary to have a good relationship with others:
Good social manners. Orphans must often adapt to living with new families. In order to
adapt successfully, they must know how to behave, how to communicate, how to respond
to stressful situations, and how to deal with people from different backgrounds. Friendship formation. Forming friendships is an important social skill for children. Peer
friendships give children support, guidance and experience in sharing and communicating. Peer resistance. Children need peer resistance skills to enable them to stand up for their own
values and beliefs in the face of conflicting ideas and practices from peers. Children with
low self-esteem are often unable to challenge peer pressure, for example, in experimenting
with sex, substance abuse and general deviancy. Children with healthy self-esteem are able to
stand up for themselves if they think something is wrong, even if it means being treated with
ridicule or facing exclusion from the group. Effective communication. Children need to know how to express themselves clearly and
appropriately during interactions with other people in any given circumstances.
Communication is especially important, as it is the essence of human relationships. Negotiation. Negotiation involves the ability to see both sides of a specific issue and agree to a
resolution without compromising one’s principles. Negotiation should not be confrontational. Non-violent conflict resolution. When involved in an argument or dispute, children should be
encouraged to remain calm, negotiate and avoid the use of violence and emotional blackmail.Skills necessary for making good decisions:
Critical thinking. Children face many contradictory messages, expectations and demands from
teachers, guardians and peers, as well as from radio and television. They need to be able to
analyse their choices and decide what is best for themselves. Children
need the ability to think through situations adequately, weighing the
advantages and the disadvantages so that they may make informed decisions. Creative thinking. This involves devising different means of dealing with a
situation. It involves coming up with new ideas and trying out more than
one way to solve a problem. Decision making. Children may be confronted with serious demands,
which require them to make appropriate decisions. They must be able to
prioritise and weigh the advantages and disadvantages of a course of action. Problem solving. Problem solving is the ability to identify, cope with and
find solutions to the difficult and challenging situations that OVC
experience.Guide to Mobilising and Strengthening Community-Led Care for Orphans and Vulnerable Children Unit 2, Module 4^263