Children learn new things every day, right from birth. Along with these new abilities, they acquire the confidence to implement them in the real world. When kids grow older, this confidence becomes as important as the skill. This is why kids need to trust in their own capabilities and at the same time, know that they can handle the situation when they are not successful at something.
Healthy self-confidence can be developed by experiencing mastery as well as rebounding from failure. But not all children are confident by birth. Some of them are naturally shy and overly sensitive. They need more love, care, attention and encouragement from your side to blossom. The below few attributes are signs that your child is underconfident.
- Unable to make eye contact.
- Find it difficult to make friends.
- Unable or hesitates to make a conversation appropriate for his/her age.
- Lacks self-esteem.
- Displays insecurity and self-doubt.
That being said, we list five ways how you can help your kids be confident and capable, as well as get the most out of their skills and talents.
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Help kids find their passion and set goals
Exploring new things and interests provide kids with a sense of identity, which is important in building confidence. Seeing their talents grow provides a huge boost to their self-esteem.
Along with this, articulating goals, whether large or small and accomplishing them makes kids feel confident and strong. Help your child set actionable goals by asking them to make a list of things they want to accomplish. Then, help them practice long-term goals into realistic benchmarks.
Early childhood education programs such as Kumon help kids to set their goals. We provide kids with the much-needed encouragement for learning something new every day.
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Build confidence within yourself
You need to model confidence yourself. When kids watch you tackle new tasks with optimism and a lot of preparation, sets a good example for them. You don’t have to pretend to be perfect, but try to keep your anxiety at bay and show it in front of your kids. Else, focus more on the positive things and illustrate the same in from of your children
Kids idolise many things about their parents, including how they act towards others and their behaviour. There is indeed a strong relationship between positive kids and positive parents.
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Encourage kids to try new things
Rather than focusing all their energy on what they are already good at, let them focus more on diversifying themselves. Gaining new skills makes kids feel confident and capable that they can do new things themselves and can tackle whatever comes their way.
The best thing you can do to make kids try new things is to enrol them in early childhood education programs. They are equipped with several activities that enable them to try out new things that help them build confidence.
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Celebrate efforts
Praising your child’s accomplishments is great, but it is also important to let them know that you are proud of their efforts, no matter what the outcome is. It needs time and hard work to develop and implement new skills and the results are not always immediate. Your kid should know that you value their efforts, whether they are toddlers building with blocks or teenagers teaching themselves something new.
It is also important that you celebrate your child’s unique personality and God-given abilities. This will help them understand how they are special and what differences they can make in the world.
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Embrace the imperfections
We, as grown-ups, know that perfection is unrealistic. It is important for kids to get the same message as early as possible. Help your child understand that whether be it on television, magazine, or social media feeds, the idea that others are always happy, successful and perfectly dressed is a fantasy and a destructive one as well.
Embracing the imperfections of your child will make them feel more real, relatable and confident. Letting others see the less perfect parts allows them to connect more deeply with others and be loved completely.
Wrapping It Up
Parenting mostly tends to have a dictatorial side, but you should give your kid the space to express their emotions and opinions. You can have healthy debates with them when they can express themselves without being judged. Undermining your kid’s point of view just because they are children will ultimately lead to a lack of confidence.
Kumon is one of the best early childhood education programs in India that helps in unlocking the true potential of children so that they can achieve more on their own. To know more, please visit the Kumon website.