Building Your Child’s Confidence
When it comes to overcoming and navigating many life’s challenges, few things are as important to a child’s current and future success. One of those qualities is confidence in themselves and their abilities. To be self-confident is to have faith in one’s self and abilities. It’s an essential ingredient for all aspects of a child’s healthy development and a key ingredient for good school performance. Building a child’s confidence is also very crucial for getting along with their peers and other people in the society.
It also helps them get through many social challenges (such as socializing, sharing, competing, and making new friends), which are some of the days to day events children face in their everyday life. To be unsure of one’s abilities and to be too afraid to explore are early signs of lack of self-confidence. This may come from a variety of sources- our backgrounds, tribe, neighbourhood, past experiences and not measuring up to peers etc. It is very important for parents to train their children to be self-confident.
A child’s sense of confidence is shaped and nurtured (or not) by those who care for him/her. Primary caregivers- parents, relatives, caregivers and teachers have a major role to play in a child’s self-confidence building. Parents can help build confidence in their children through a modelling which can be described as ABC. It needs to be based on some actual abilities, believes in the skills and talents that the kids possess and thereafter modelling this confidence so they can learn from them. Allow your children to play and interact with other kids. Play is how children learn about themselves, other people, and the world around them. Through play, children learn how to interact, solve problems and develop confidence. For example, an infant who successfully presses a button on a toy that produces a pleasant sound to his or her hearing is learning that he/she can make something beautiful happen by the click of a button. Letting a child lead playtime helps build confidence, assertiveness, leadership skills and overall understand life.
Feeling useful and needed makes a child feel important and builds confidence. Responsibilities that are age-appropriate should be given to children to boost their confidence level. Also, helping a child work through problems helps to build confidence in the child. The goal is to guide and support the child in his/her problem-solving efforts in order to create a sense of confidence, mastery and competence. Children also learn by doing. Encouraging a child to try to master tasks he/she is struggling with by breaking down difficult tasks into a step by step procedure. This helps in the child’s problem-solving skills which also reflects in the child confident.
Lastly, children learn mostly by watching, parents and caregivers have a huge role to play here. Children are always keenly watching their parents for clues about what to do or how to feel about different tasks or social interactions.
Possessing self-confidence can give one the wings to flutter and develop a high level of passion, hope and empathy. It gives one the belief that they can confront the world and pave a path for themselves that will lead them to their dreams and aspirations. This describes exactly why building self-confidence is vital. In the end, we can only be positive about a child’s future when he/she is raised to believe in himself and his abilities against all odds.