7 Ways To Build Your Kids’ Confidence
Encourage their strengths. This comes as early as babyhood when you praise them for doing the right and good things. Applaud their performance and make sure they see and know how proud you are of them and what they are doing. Encourage those strengths as they grow older by involving them in groups, teams and communities that will feed their abilities and help keep them growing stronger. This can be enrolling them in classes to improve natural talents in music or art. It may also be getting them started with sports teams, dance classes or a gymnastics group. Encourage what they are passionate and strong in so they will continue reaching new goals and growing.
Never call them names. No matter how upset you are, never call them names. Things like brat, stupid, dumb and similar are easy to throw out when you are angry. Work diligently to make sure you as their parent aren’t bullying them with bad names and derogatory comments against their character or abilities.
Encourage their friendships. Healthy relationships with other kids their age is important. Encourage those friendships by working out play date details, giving them plenty of time with friends and just giving them space to play independently with friends. Quality friendships with even just a few people is an excellent way to build your kids confidence.
Praise the good without reflecting on the bad. When your children do something well make sure you praise them for it. Perhaps their team didn’t win the game, but your child scored a goal. Focus more on the good aspect of their performance and don’t talk about the bad parts that could cause embarrassment or discouragement.
Help them improve in problem areas. Give them the chance to practice, grow and learn more. Invest in lessons to improve things they enjoy doing but don’t excel at. Don’t hesitate to hire a tutor or get help with academics to give them the tools they need to succeed without issue. If, by chance, you are worried that there are psychological problems that need to be addressed, perhaps the use of a child psychologist such as children psychologist london should be consulted.
Listen to their words and their heart. Sometimes it is simply a matter of listening not just to what you want to hear, but what they aren’t saying. Observe their behavior, attitudes, expressions and body language and work to help them feel confident in themselves by “hearing” their needs.
Don’t get angry. Sometimes kids will want to do something, but just won’t be successful. A fast way to break their confidence is to get angry with their mistakes in things like sports and academics. You have a right to want to push them to do better, but anger toward them is rarely a good or healthy thing. Focus your energy on communication and how to better their attitude and performance.
These ways to build your kids confidence are easy to implement into your daily lives. As a parent you can work diligently from birth to encourage your kids strengths, help them overcome their weaknesses and build a healthy self confidence that will follow them throughout their lives.
jamesrod214 says
I agree that a great way to boost your kids’ confidence is to sign them up for a team. My daughter signed up for team gymnastics. Since then, her confidence has boosted dramatically. She also has something that she can work toward and it helps her develop as a person.