Children develop self confidence not because parents tell them they’re great, but because of their own achievements and personal beliefs. Encouragement and praise are always good methods, but unless a child believes themselves to be able, they will not have enough self confidence to enable them to fulfill their potential and live happy, healthy lives.
For this reason it is good for children to achieve small things, regularly. Things like cleaning teeth, brushing hair and tying shoe laces are the typical skills a child will develop. It is the result of these small things that will enable a child to enjoy their skills and form their own positive judgments on themselves. Once a child gains their own sense of ability they can then and only then start to live a confident and fulfilled life. A child’s own strength is the necessary power to enable them to grow and succeed. The most perfect parent can praise and encourage, which of course will set the foundations for self belief but it will not always hold with a child through to adulthood. Unless they themselves find the power within them to fuel their own confidence it will not inhabit their values.
Building self confidence must start in the child’s early development. When they learn the art of walking, clapping and making noises as a toddler, they instantly get praise and appreciate their new skills. To enable these milestones to develop and improve they require this praise and appreciation to gain self confidence to try new things. The most confident children are those who get the opportunities to practice and master their skills. So it is extremely important that the confidence building starts at this early stage.
Where confidence is concerned it is important that children learn that mistakes can happen. With an effective boost from us and more importantly themselves, they will learn they can achieve if they just try again, work harder and believe they can succeed. The in-built temperament of a child will obviously affect their confidence levels. Some children may have a more difficult time developing positive self image because of their temperament. Every child is unique, but it is important that they understand that they all have a special quality because they are unique. Some are harder than others to inspire but we must make sure we try.
It is important to understand that no matter how hard we try, as adults we can’t always supervise and physically guide a child all day every day. So it is important they are given the chance to believe in themselves and live with confidence and self belief. This can be achieved, reinforced and inspired in many ways. The most effective way I find is throughout a child’s own personal time, through their entertainment, play and creative times. This is when they are free of issues and absorbed in their own thought and imaginations. With this in mind, the most beneficial forms of inspiring confidence and belief in self worth is through their love of books, TV programmes, toys, special characters. If a child can see their favorite characters living confident and cheerful lives they to will subconsciously re-create these attitudes within themselves- because they themselves believe it- and not as an act they have been informed to portray.
A child’s confidence can only shine through if they are demonstrated these acts of confidence from a source they are happy to copy. A parent can be confident but a child may not be able to relate topics of confidence from them to re-enact in their own lives. With issues and life worries being very different for a child to that of an adult, it is important that they see a child behaving confidently. Friends, other children and pupils at school can show these assets, but it would be much more beneficial if they had a character that they could refer back to, that they can follow and constantly rely upon at the times when they most need the boost. This I believe to be within the books our children read. If a character in a book is confident, able, willing to try and dreams to succeed. A child can relate to the character and take in the attitudes and values of that character. The most perfect character would be one that had an interactive website which could be enjoyed and be influential on a regular basis. A character that had an on-going diary or blog would be beneficial. This will help the child to develop, maintain and be equipped with continuous thoughts and demonstrations of living life confidently and happily.
This article is just a little food for thought, I encourage any readers to search the internet for children’s books that infuse values for self belief and inspire finding special personal inner strengths to help raise a confident child.
