The beliefs and feelings we have about ourselves is called self-esteem. Our methods of motivation, attitudes, emotional judgments, and actions are all affected by the way we perceive ourselves.
What factors make up self-esteem? Self-confidence, pride, self-sufficiency, self-respect, and independence all combine to make self-esteem. The majority of our self-esteem is developed during childhood. Especially in kids, self-esteem constantly changes as we experience different social interactions and new events.
Enhancing a child’s self-esteem is the first step to ensuring his or her right to personal safety. Keeping children away from physical harm is only secondary.
A child’s self-esteem is based on a positive relationship with parents and eventually teachers. Parents can foster that can-do attitude in their children with a “Wow!” or a “That’s great!” every time they accomplish a feat.
But praise and positive reinforcement alone will not make children feel better automatically. Providing them with lots of love, care, and understanding is equally significant. Children who are happy and confident may still experience low self-esteem because they do not feel loved. Likewise, children who are loved and pampered at home may still feel inadequate and incompetent, thus ending up with low self-esteem. Hence, a balance of both should be present.
Giving constructive communication, positive messages, and carefully delivering criticism will lead to good self-esteem. Use these tips to improve a child’s self-perceptions.
1. Give “Don’ts” as little as necessary Handing out too many negative remarks will leave a child feeling inadequate. Keep your responses as positive as possible.
2. Let kids complete their sentences. Avoid interruptions, as these disrupt their train of thought or make them forget what they’re saying. Otherwise, they’ll feel as if their ideas are insignificant and not worth listening to.
3. Establish eye contact. Be a good model of conversation by giving kids your full attention. This communicates that you are interested in what they are saying, and that you are stressing a noteworthy idea, as well.
4. Make sure you have conversations One person shouldn’t do all the talking. Likewise, kids must learn only one person should talk at a time. Everyone can’t speak at once. Make sure they know that if more than one person is trying to talk, they won’t understand a thing.
5. Keep your cool. Make sure you wait to talk to your child when you are calm and relaxed. Speaking to a child when you are angry will only feed the flames of conflict.
6. Criticism is still necessary Stressed earlier was the importance of positive comments. Criticism is required, as well. Kids must know when they are misbehaving or didn’t perform up to expectations. Tell them why what or what they didn’t do wasn’t acceptable, and stress the importance of not doing it again.
