Teaching your child to share

Sharing doesn’t always come naturally to young children – it’s something they need to practise. The trick is to make sharing and taking turns fun.

Show your child what sharing looks like: “Shall we share?” or “Look, I’m sharing my seat with you.”

To encourage your child to share, you can:

• give lots of praise whenever your child shares or takes turns
• show how sharing can make us feel good about ourselves and make others happy
• ask your child to think how others might feel if they don’t get a turn

Try different games to help your child learn. You can:

• use a sand timer to show when the sand runs out, it’s someone else’s turn
• play sharing games with their toys, saying: “one for Teddy, one for you and one for me…”
• play ‘catch’ to practise taking turns

Try not to get cross or call your child selfish when they won’t share. It can make sharing a negative experience they’ll want to resist. If they’re old enough, ask why they don’t want to share, and respect their reasons.

It’s OK to not want to share a favourite toy or bedtime bear. If this is the case, remind them to put any prized possessions away when visiting friends.

In the meantime, keep showing and telling what sharing looks like. If you’re having difficulty, it may help to read our article on understanding and managing behaviour.

Page last reviewed: March 2026

Next review due: March 2029