Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 44 to 50

Social and emotional changes are part of your child’s journey to adulthood. You have a big role to play in helping your child develop adult emotions and social skills. Strong relationships with family and friends are vital for your child’s healthy social and emotional development. Here are some ideas to help you support your child’s social and emotional development.

You can be a role model for positive relationships with your friends, children, partner and colleagues. Your child will learn from seeing relationships that have respect, empathy and positive ways of resolving conflict. You can also role-model positive ways of dealing with difficult emotions, moods and conflict. For example, there’ll be times when you’re feeling cranky, tired and unsociable. Instead of withdrawing from your child or getting into an argument, you could say, “I’m tired and cross. I feel I can’t talk now without getting upset. Can we have this conversation after dinner?”

Getting to know your child’s friends and making them welcome in your home will help you keep up with your child’s social relationships. It also shows that you recognise how important your child’s friends are to your child’s sense of self. If you’re concerned about your child’s friends, you might be able to guide your child towards other social groups. But banning a friendship or criticising your child’s friends could have the opposite effect. That is, your child might want to spend even more time with the group of friends you’ve banned.



Active listening can be a powerful way of strengthening your relationship with your child in these years. To listen actively, you need to stop what you’re doing when your child wants to talk. If you’re in the middle of something, make a time when you can listen. Respect your child’s feelings and opinions and try to understand their perspective, even if it’s not the same as yours. For example, “It sounds like you’re feeling left out because you’re not going to the party on Thursday night”.



Telling your child how you feel when they behave in particular ways helps your child learn to read and respond to emotions. It also models positive and constructive ways of relating to other people. It can be as simple as saying something like “I felt really happy when you invited me to your school performance”.

According to paragraph 3, why shouldn’t you criticize your child’s friends?