Developing Or Improving Your child’s Self esteem Posted by Unknown , Wednesday, 27 February 2013 at 08:37, in

A healthy self esteem serves as some sort of amour for your child against the challenges of the world. A child not only needs to have a healthy self esteem to deal with present situations but also needs it to be a better person in future. Self-esteem fluctuates as kids grow. It's frequently changed and fine-tuned, because it is affected by a child's experiences and new perceptions.

Kids with healthy self-esteem tend to enjoy interacting with others. They're comfortable in social settings and enjoys group activities as well as independent pursuits. When challenges arise, they can work toward finding solutions and voice discontent without belittling themselves or others. It is important therefore to ensure that your child develops a healthy self esteem.

A few points have been outlined and explained below:

Spending quality time with your child:

if you really want your child to have that great self esteem, you have to learn to spend quality time with that child. Respecting and listening to him/her.

Be a source of comfort and safety for your child:

Children, who are constantly being out rightly ridiculed and laughed at tend to feel low about themselves. You should be able to encourage positive comments about your child and strongly keep the child away from negative comments which are expressed always. This is because over time, the child might begin to see his/herself in that light.

Identify and encourage your child’s strength and interest:

Every child has something he or she is good at. Some could be extremely good at some things and on the other hand, they perform terribly at some other task. As a good parent, you should be able to recognize your child’s strength and weaknesses and encourage positive interest. 

Establishing the right expectation:

Help your child in believing in his/her abilities by setting just the right expectation. If your child begins to feel that no matter what, he/she would never achieve the expected goal, there is a tendency that that sense of fulfillment would be lost and if consistently, might be lost forever. Ensure that your expectations are not too high for your child.

Learn to offer praises for your child’s efforts:

You need to praise the efforts your child makes each time he/she sets out to do something positive. However, focus on the efforts rather than the outcome because your child might not be getting the right results but makes so much efforts at getting it right and should not be discouraged.

Openly talk about weaknesses and strengths with your child:

Let your child get the impression weaknesses and strengths characterizes almost everything in existence and that he/she is not an exemption. Your child should be able to know that failing in one aspect of life does not mean a total failure in life itself.

Offer carefully structured criticisms:

If you criticize your child’s actions, it is wise. However, this should be done carefully and with love. It is not advisable to criticize your child in front of others this would stain his or her dignity. You should be careful to directly criticize the actions of your child and not the child.

Be a positive mirror:

Just as a child grows and learns many little things, he/she learns of your opinions or feelings towards him/her. Let your child know you are proud to have him/her and let this feeling be honest.

Monitor school influences on your child:

Check the type of friends your child hangs out with in school or the company he/she keeps. Peer influence is one big and enormous factor that affects a child’s personality. You should be able to encourage interaction with friends who would help boost your child’s esteem.

Hand out responsibilities to your child:

one major way children get to build their self esteem is by accomplishing the tasks they have been given to do or by knowing they contribute to whatever happens at home. It makes them feel they have been of help.

Encourage your child to express feelings:

Expressing feelings comfortably does not mean the child is free to explode at every emotional twinge, but rather develops a comfortable balance between expressing and controlling feelings. Do not respond to your child’s feelings with anger messages. The fear of parents' reactions makes the child begin to stuff feelings.

Never compare your child with others in such a harsh manner:

Your child would recoil into his/her shell when bluntly told that he could never do what “Mark” does although they are of the same age and in the same class. The child suffers inwardly and may not be able to stop feeling less than “Mark”.

Provide encouragement:

Naturally, we are spurred on when someone offers some sort of encouragement when we feel we are not getting at something right. Learn to offer encouraging words or expressions to your child. This would help in a great way.