If your child is trying to figure out who would be a good friend, or who would be a good peer to invite over for a playdate, start by talking with them about what to look for in a friend. There are so many different attributes your child might want in a potential friend, but they may not always be the best things to look for in someone. If your child is having a hard time making friends, they might say they’d like to be friends with the most popular child or the one that has the biggest, coolest stuff in their house. It makes sense to talk about attributes and characteristics they want to see in someone they’d want in a friendship. Here is a brief list of characteristics you can use as a starting point for a conversation about attributes in a good friendship:

flexible
supportive
good listener
thoughtful
kind
considerate
compassionate
loving
funny
sensitive
has common interests with your child, e.g. they both take dance class, or go to horseback riding, or like Pokemon, etc.
sincere
sweet
loyal

What characteristics do you look for in a friend?