Parents want their children to succeed in school, achieve personal goals and resist peer pressure. Fostering positive self-confidence in your children helps them live up to these expectations, according to the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. Building positive self-confidence in your children begins with simple parenting techniques that you can easily implement into your daily life.
Step 1
Praise your child. SAMHSA's National Mental Health Information Center advises praising your child when your child excels at something and when your child does a good job or displays positive character traits. Also praise your child for his effort. If he has worked extremely hard on something and dedicated time and energy, that effort should not go unrewarded. Your child's self-confidence will increase if his parents applaud his hard work and accomplishments.
Step 2
Provide unconditional love. Your child needs to know that you love her even if she makes a mistake or displays bad behavior, according to the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. You must still enforce rules and discipline rule breaking, but you should reinforce your love for your child as you enforce rules. Do this by focusing on your child's behavior that results in discipline, rather than focusing on your child's character. To increase your child's self-confidence, do not withhold love from her.
Step 3
Give your child responsibility. According to the Cute Kid website, giving your child responsibilities such as chores or jobs to do around the house helps him feel valuable. Give your child chores to do every day and as he completes his chores, he will experience a sense of accomplishment, increasing his self-worth and confidence. Keep chores age-appropriate. Even young children can help put dishes in the dishwasher or make beds. Increase the effectiveness of assigning chores by making a chore chart with stickers to serve as a concrete reminder of his abilities.
Step 4
Teach your child about decision making. Allow your child to make her own decisions and help her recognize a good decision from a bad decision. If your child has responsibility over her own problems, she will gain confidence by solving them herself. Aid your child by answering questions or helping her think of alternatives, but do not solve the problem for her.
Step 5
Provide a positive role model. Your child looks up to you, making you the best role model for him. If you display pessimistic behaviors or lack self-confidence, your child may eventually adopt the same behaviors, according to the Kids Health website. Show your child how to be a confident, self-assured individual by modeling the behavior.
Step 6
Teach positive self statements. According to SAMHSA's National Mental Health Information Center, redirecting your child's negative beliefs and teaching her to think positively will increase her confidence. To do this, you must first identify your child's negative or irrational beliefs and help her set more accurate standards. The Kids Health website explains that helping your child become more realistic in self-evaluations will help her have a healthy self-concept.
A child with an inaccurate perception of herself may say," I can't do math. I'm a terrible student," when in fact she is a wonderful student who simply struggles more with math than other subjects. To help her self-confidence you should respond with, "You are a wonderful student. Math just takes a little more effort. Why don't we work through your math homework together?" This response acknowledges her feelings, while emphasizing the more accurate perception of her academic success.
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