TWO Sutherland Shire primary school teachers have launched an education project that gives children confidence in their social skills.
Music teacher Amanda De Lore and special-needs teacher Jodie Pringle are the women behind Harmonize.
Targeted at children aged 4 to 8, the project draws on increasing children's social and emotional skills outside of the classroom.
Through games, music, puppets and roleplay, Harmonize taps into children's sensory development.
Mrs De Lore, who is also an academic educator, said the idea was to strengthen communication, resilience and peer relations in a small group setting.
"Social and emotional skills are needed for a successful adult life, yet such learning isn't a major focus in traditional educational settings," she said.
"Sometimes, environmental cues and everyday experiences are not enough."
She said that basic social skills were fading because of children's reliance on new technology.
"Lots of children don't know how to connect with other children and people assume youngsters just pick things up as they go along," she said.
"What we do can be as simple as picking up a stone with a word on it and children say what that word means to them.
"We're targeting a crucial age where children are very receptive to learning."
And music is thrown into the mix.
"Specific skills are taught, practised and reinforced," Mrs Pringle said. "Music helps make it stick."
The Cronulla program costs $25 for a weekly 30-minute session.
Details: harmonize2015@yahoo.com.au