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Developing and nurturing healthy friendships amongst students is critical for building a positive learning environment and teachers/counsellors play a crucial role to help students in developing interpersonal relationships, right from the first day of kindergarten to the last day of their school life. With endless opportunities to teach students how to interact with those around them, teachers help in resolving a conflict, promoting cooperation, and many other issues that may crop up in the classroom. Teachers pursuing accredited child counselling courses online will learn the ways to help children develop healthy friendship qualities in them.

The ability to make friends and interact socially is one of the most important life skills that children need to develop. Developing interpersonal relationships is quite necessary and many teachers often do not pay much heed to the role that they play here.

Researches have shown that making friends isn’t necessarily an intrinsic quality in children. Asking questions, listening, and being compassionate towards others are all skills that need to be learned and cultivated. Since teacher play an important role in their lives, hence to promote the learning of these skills, teachers must create an inclusive atmosphere that welcomes all students to interact with one another. Author and education expert Michele Borba believes in refining social skills through trial and error; according to her, when students are engaged in social situations early on, they have more opportunities to develop social confidence and have a sense of belonging.

All in all, teachers need to help students develop healthy friendship qualities through children's counselling training that will enable them to build friendly relations with their peers and others around them.

We have discussed below 7 healthy friendship qualities to be cultivated by children in/outside the classroom to develop strong friendships with others around them:

Acceptance

Accepting friends as they are is a sign of being a good friend. Good and healthy friends accept the individuality of their friends. They don’t try to judge them, criticise them or alter/change them and their habits.

Active Listening

Actively listening, paying attention, asking questions, are all signs of a good friend. They are genuinely interested in what you have to say and are always there to listen to you.

Compromise

Real friends believe in sharing and caring. They work together and, in the process, sometimes give up a little of something they want so that everyone gains a little. To put it simply, nobody in a healthy friendship feels being taken advantage of.

Forgiveness

A friend is one who understands the other person and forgives past mistakes and refrains from bringing it up. An unhealthy friend would hold a grudge and make use of the other person’s weakness to their own advantage.

Respect

Respect is a key characteristic of a healthy friendship. Friends respect the other person as a unique individual who has their own thoughts, needs and emotions. They respect their feelings and privacy and don’t question their importance nor gossip about them.

Support

Healthy friends encourage you to pursue your dreams and work towards achieving them. They support you and are there in times of need. Remember the proverb? – “A friend in need is a friend indeed!”

Trust

Trust is the most important factor in any relationship, and a strong bond of friendship is no different. A quality friendship is based on trust. You allow them to grow as an individual even when they are not around you and never become jealous of them.

As author William M. Bukowski believes: “The long-term effects of being a withdrawn child are enduringly negative. Over time, we found that withdrawn kids showed increasing levels of sadness and higher levels of depressive feelings. Have one friend can be protective for withdrawn or shy kids. Our study confirms the value of having friends, which are like a shield against negative social experiences.”