American philosopher Emerson once said, “Confidence is the first key to success.” A confident child is optimistic and proactive, willing to face challenges; conversely, a child lacking confidence tends to be timid, pessimistic, passive, and hesitant to try new things, relying on others and indecisive. It is evident that confidence has a significant impact on a child’s growth and personality development.
So, as parents, how can we create these successful experiences for our children?
We need to set clear and achievable small goals.
Remember, small goals! These goals should be easily attainable by the child yet have a certain level of challenge. For example, for a child with poor academic performance, start with setting goals to improve by 2 or 5 points. Similarly, for a child who often neglects homework, starting with easier tasks, completing a quarter, etc. If learning doesn’t work, exploring other hobbies such as sports, drawing, dancing, etc., might be beneficial.
Every time a child achieves a small goal, they gain a sense of accomplishment, which enhances their confidence. For instance, a child won an equestrian competition at the provincial level, received media coverage, and the child’s spirits were lifted, leading to a significant improvement in academic performance.
Below are 10 tips to nurture a child’s confidence:
– In the process of a child’s growth, the journey is more important than the destination. So, whether your child scores the winning goal for the team or accidentally kicks the ball out of bounds, applaud their efforts. It is crucial not to make children feel embarrassed for trying. Peikoff Hart says that in the long run, continuous effort establishes confidence better than sporadic good work.
– Encourage your child to practice anything they are interested in without imposing too much pressure. Child prodigy Harmony Zhu, a pianist, began practicing the piano at the age of 3. Investing energy in confident expectations through practice will lead to improvement.
– If you do all the hard work for your child, they will never develop problem-solving abilities or confidence. A parent’s assistance may hinder a child from gaining confidence in self-help and discovering solutions themselves. It is best to let your child fail or face setbacks a few times to learn how to solve problems on their own.
– Don’t expect your child to perform like an adult. Unrealistic standards may impede their efforts if children feel they must perform as well as their parents. Striving to meet parental expectations can lower a child’s confidence.
– Sometimes, children’s continuous questioning may seem annoying but should be encouraged. Asking questions is beneficial for a child’s growth as it signifies their awareness of the unknown. Children who grow up in families where asking curious questions is encouraged have an advantage at school as they have practiced gathering information from parents, which translates to learning efficiently from teachers.
– Let your child know they can achieve significant accomplishments by setting and achieving small goals, akin to riding a bicycle without training wheels. Parents can cultivate a child’s confidence by increasing their responsibilities.
– Encourage your child to interact with unfamiliar peers and individuals of various ages. Developing their social skills equates to nurturing their confidence.
– Criticizing a child’s efforts can be demoralizing. Providing useful feedback and advice is acceptable, but never tell them they are doing poorly.
– If your child is afraid of failure because they worry about your reaction, they will never try new things. In most cases, parental criticism can lower a child’s self-esteem and motivation.
– Learning from mistakes can build confidence. However, this only happens when, as a parent, you view mistakes as opportunities for learning and growth. Avoid overly protecting your child. Allowing them to occasionally mess up will help them understand how to do better next time. Parents should see moments of error as opportunities to educate children not to fear failure.
As a parent, you have a responsibility to increase your child’s exposure to life experiences, which will help them develop the confidence to face the broader world. Exposing children to new things teaches them that despite how daunting and different things may seem, they can overcome them.
Reference Source: Compiled from various internet sources.
Image and text source: Internet (Infringement Deleted)
