Parents with children in primary and secondary schools have been given advice on helping their kids make friends.

According to John Sharry, writing for the Irish Times, this is a "very important part of childhood".

He said that parents should encourage their youngsters to form friendships as this can help boost their self-esteem, give them social skills and affect their intimate relationships in the future.

In order for mothers and fathers to help their children develop these friendships, he suggested facilitating play dates which give kids one-to-one time with each other and allowing them to attend social activities.

Mr Sharry added that being supportive through a dispute without intervening too much is also a good idea to enable children to learn how to deal with the situation by themselves.

This advice could help prevent kids become victims of cyber-bullying, as it gives them confidence to confront bullies before the problem gets out of hand.

A new mental health programme called Zippy's Friends has also been launched by the Health Service Executive (HSE) in 40 schools in Ireland to encourage youngsters to talk about their problems.

Written by Donal Walsh 

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