Here's how to help if your child finds it hard to make friends at school

Helen O’Callaghan talks to child experts about strategies to help children who find it difficult to make friends at school.

YOUR heart breaks when you find he spent play-time on his own. You overhear his classmates’ mums arranging play-dates but he’s never invited. Birthday party invitations circulated recently — he wasn’t included.

When a child isn’t making friends at school, it’s a major worry for parents, says psychologist Jenny Ryan (www.mylifesolutions.ie).