33 Perfect Social Skills Activities (For Kids, Teens, Adults)

Social skills are an essential part of childhood development, and a child’s social skills can set them up for life. Learning to communicate with others offers many benefits, such as personal growth, academic success, and overall well-being. Engaging children and teenagers in social skills activities can greatly help their social development, fostering positive relationships and improving communication.

We’ve listed over 30 Social Skills Activities that you can use to help children learn communication skills and improve their confidence, aiding their overall social development.

What Are Social Skills Activities?

Social skills activities are structured exercises, games, or interactive tasks that help children and teenagers develop and practice social competence, empathy, teamwork, problem-solving, and other vital interpersonal skills.

Social skills activities can take place in various settings, such as at school, at home, or when playing outside with friends or family members. Parents and teachers can encourage children to participate in social skills activities through games both at home and in the classroom. 

Why Are Social Skills Activities Important?

Although children will participate in social skills activities without even realizing it, structured games and activities can target specific communication skills that are important for children to develop.

Some children do struggle with social interaction from a young age, whether this is due to being neurodivergent, shyness, or a lack of exposure to other children their age.

This can lead to problems later down the line as high school students, such as children not being able to recognize others’ personal space, making inappropriate comments, and being unable to recognize emotions in others. Limited social interaction at a young age can also make it difficult for children when they are making friends in school.

So why are social skills games and activities so essential to childhood development?

1. Enhancing Communication: Interactive social skills activities enable kids and teenagers to practice effective verbal and non-verbal communication, such as active listening, expressing ideas coherently, and understanding body language cues.
2. Building Empathy: Engaging in social skills activities helps kids develop empathy and understand the emotions and perspectives of other kids, fostering strong and meaningful relationships.
3. Promoting Cooperation in Social Groups: Collaborative activities provide opportunities for children and teenagers to work together, teaching them valuable teamwork skills such as turn-taking, compromising, allocating tasks, and respecting others’ opinions.
4. Developing Problem-Solving Skills: Social skills activities encourage participants to think critically and discover creative solutions when faced with challenges, enhancing their problem-solving abilities. Social skills training can also lead to improved conflict resolution skills in children, helping them to build healthy relationships.
5. Boosting Self-Confidence: By actively participating in social skills activities, such as team sports, kids and teenagers gain confidence in their abilities to socialize and interact in various social settings, contributing to their personal growth.

30+ Social Skills Activities For Kids and Teenagers to Build Positive Relationships

We’ve organized our list of social skills activities into different categories, to help you decide which activities would work best for your students or children:

• Classic Social Skills Activities
• Drama and Role-Play Games
• Creative Games to Practice Social Skills
• Unique Social Skills Activities

Classic Social Skills Activities

These are games you might have played yourself in school or as a kid, and each game teaches children communication and team-building, whilst boosting self-confidence.

Group Discussions

Group and guided discussions on various topics help improve active listening and turn-taking. They can encourage children to express their opinions thoughtfully and respectfully and help them to listen to others without judgment. 

Problem-Solving Scenarios

Present students with real-life scenarios or ethical dilemmas, encouraging them to brainstorm solutions and discuss possible outcomes. Problem-solving questions work best as group activities, where students must decide on outcomes together. Not only does this task promote communication skills, but also critical thinking skills and logic.

Leadership Skills Activities

Assign leadership roles within a group or club, allowing participants to practice leadership, delegation, and decision-making. If you’re a parent, you could encourage your child to start their own club with their friends, such as a book club or movie club, to encourage them to work together and organize roles accordingly.

Public Speaking Competitions

If you work in a school, you could organize public speaking contests to develop confidence, articulation, and effective communication. Give students a topic to discuss for an allotted amount of time, and you could teach preparatory lessons beforehand to help them best organize their thoughts. You could also research public speaking competitions in your local area or state and encourage your child to participate. Teenagers in particular can benefit from these competitions and use their efforts as part of college and job applications. 

Team Sports

A classic way for young people to develop their social skills is by being part of a team. Along with increased fitness and the competitive aspect of sports, being in a team can help to build confidence and teach children how to work together to achieve a shared goal. 

Play Dates

This is generally aimed at younger children, in which a time and place is decided for children to meet up and play together. Play dates encourage children to interact with each other organically, whilst building their imagination and motor skills. Play dates often come with their own social challenges for children, and children learn to work through and navigate these challenges on their own, helping to build their resilience across other social situations.

Pretend Play

Playing pretend is one of the best ways for young children to develop social skills. By playing pretend, either with toys or with their own imagination, kids learn to make stories, express themselves through play, and build their creativity. Pretend play should be encouraged at home and at school, and you can interact with the child’s game to help them if they struggle to invent stories or use their imagination on their own.

Drama and Role-Play Games

Using drama as a tool for building social skills is a fun way for children to build confidence without them even realizing it. You can adapt these various drama games to suit different age groups and interests.

Role-playing

Assign different scenarios where participants act out real-life situations, allowing them to practice empathy and communication skills. These can be simple situations, such as going to the grocery store, or more complex situations such as witnessing bullying.

Charades

This classic party game encourages nonverbal communication skills and enhances children’s ability to interpret body language cues. It’s a fun, easy game that all ages will enjoy.

Acting Out Stories

Encourage children to choose a story and act it out, either verbally or non-verbally, helping kids learn narrative skills in the process. This can be adapted for younger children and teenagers, and you can provide them with possible story options to assist them.

Drama Club

Joining a drama club provides an opportunity to develop confidence, public speaking skills, and teamwork. If there isn’t a drama club available at your child’s school, research local drama clubs that they could join. The invaluable experiences they will have at a drama club, and potentially starring in performances, can also help them in the future when it comes to college applications.

Emotion Charades

 Write down different emotions and place them into a hat. Students then have to pick an emotion from the hat and act it out with facial expressions, whilst the other students guess what it is. Emotion Charades helps to develop emotional recognition and expression and is particularly useful for younger students to develop their emotional skills.

Creative Games to Practice Social Skills

Collaborative Art Projects

Engaging in art collaborations promotes cooperation and patience, and is a great way for students to express themselves creatively. You can base the art project around popular student interests or a particular period of history, or ask students themselves to think of an idea for their project.

Music-Making Games

Art can also include music-making games, and joint music-making is a great way for kids and teenagers to develop social skills. These games can include rhythm games, such as following a particular pattern of music, or even simply making a song or adapting lyrics from one of their favorite songs.

Journaling

 Writing down thoughts and feelings in a journal promotes self-reflection, emotional exploration, and self-expression. This is also a great way for children to express anger or sadness in a healthy way. If you’re a teacher, you can incorporate journaling into the beginning or end of each class as a way for students to express their thoughts privately.

Storytelling and Story Writing

Encourage participants to share personal stories or create new ones, enhancing their narrative skills and encouraging empathy. Writing is also an excellent way for students to work through negative emotions. Students could then share their stories with the rest of the class, helping to build their confidence in public speaking.

Community Service Projects

 Engaging in volunteer work enables teenagers to develop empathy, compassion, and a sense of social responsibility. You could encourage them to support local charities and give back to their community.

Cooking Together 

Cooking requires good time management and an element of creativity, and preparing meals as a group boosts these skills, along with cooperation, planning, and communication. Whether at home or in school, this activity is a creative way to improve social interaction.

Unique Social Skills Activities

Problem-Solving Board Games

 Playing a board game teaches kids to work out solutions together. Set some time aside on the weekend to play board games with your child, and make it a fun weekly ritual!

Circle of Compliments

Participants sit in a circle and take turns giving sincere compliments to each other. Whilst this game might feel a little awkward for some children at first, it fosters positivity and self-esteem and helps to create a friendly atmosphere in the classroom.

Mindfulness Activities

Children, and teenagers in particular, seem to be under more stress than ever before, with the increase of technology and opportunities for them to compare themselves to others. That’s why it’s important to teach relaxation techniques and emotional regulation strategies to help children cope with stress and develop self-awareness.

Outdoor Adventures

Engaging in outdoor activities like camping, hiking, or nature walks encourages teamwork, problem-solving, and communication skills.

Debate Competitions

 Participating in a productive debate improves critical thinking, research skills, and the ability to present a logical argument effectively. Older children can benefit greatly from being involved in debate clubs or competitions, as they have to organize their thoughts coherently and consider different viewpoints.

Pen Pals

Connecting kids or teenagers with pen pals from different cultures promotes cultural awareness, empathy, and communication skills. This is even easier to set up nowadays, with websites that have international students looking to improve their English with native speakers, or vice versa. 

Mock Job Interviews

This is a great way to teach formal communication skills. Conduct mock interviews to help teenagers prepare for future employment, focusing on communication skills, body language, and confidence. 

Simulated Social Interactions

Create scenarios where students practice greetings, introductions, and small talk, preparing them for real-life social situations. 

Cultural Exchange Programs

If your school offers this experience, participating in programs that promote cultural exchange fosters acceptance, empathy, and respect for diversity. Students can greatly benefit from having a foreign exchange student stay with them, or from visiting another country and immersing themselves in the culture at a young age.

Technology-Free Days

Designate specific days where children engage in activities without the use of screens, promoting face-to-face interaction and self-control. Whether you’re a parent or a teacher, these days are important to maintain, as too much screen time can negatively impact children’s social skills and their imagination.

Random Acts of Kindness

Encourage kids and teenagers to perform intentional acts of kindness towards others, such as helping people carry their groceries, offering compliments, or giving up their seat on the bus for someone.

Group Problem-Solving Challenges

Assign tasks that require teamwork and critical thinking, such as building a tower with limited resources. These challenges work well for any age group and help to improve logic and team-building skills.

Mind Mapping

Teach students how to create mind maps to organize thoughts and ideas, enhancing critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills. Mind maps are an easy way for children and teenagers to plan ideas for their essays or creative writing, and can also be useful study tools before exams.

Appropriate Use of Technology

Conduct sessions on responsible use of social media, cyberbullying prevention, online etiquette, and privacy awareness. If you’re a parent, be sure to inform your child of the dangers of sharing too much information online.

Personal Reflection Activities

As a way to build positive social and emotional coping skills, children should be encouraged to reflect on personal experiences, highlighting lessons learned and areas for self-improvement. Children could also list things they are grateful for at the end of each day, to help encourage a positive outlook on the world. 

Teach Social Skills With a Range of Games and Activities

Social skills are a crucial part of the holistic development of children and teenagers. Such skills enable them to demonstrate their emotional expressions and give them outlets for managing emotions.

By providing opportunities for practicing and refining social skills, such as using the games listed above, communication-based activities contribute to children having healthy relationships in the future, and being able to navigate various social situations successfully.