We can all feel like we should be doing better for our children. There’s a lot that we can feel that we are directly responsible for, and as children get older it’s not just about the skills that we teach them, but it’s about the confidence they have to learn those skills. Many children feel that, after a while, they’re not able to do things, and this can be to do with us as parents but also potentially being passed over in class, either in favor of the more gifted or those that just need more help. So what can we do to make sure that our children become more confident in their abilities, so they can develop the skills effectively?
Practice
Practicing or rehearsing, whatever you want to call it, is so important for developing skills. We all know that, on a basic level, we have to repeat information in order for it to consolidate in our brains. And if your child has a lack of confidence in a certain skill, we have to keep repeating the same points in order for it to settle in. The great thing is that for younger children, repeating certain things can be easily done. There’s a variety of reading materials for children, such as ABCmouse that help children of different ages. When we repeat, we are consolidating, and we have to remember that everybody benefits from rehearsal. There are very few people in life that have those natural skills; everybody has to practice.
Encouraging Them To Try New Things
We have to remember that self-confidence is not necessarily about the things they already have, but it’s about that willingness to try new things in life. If your child is particularly skilled at something, it’s so easy for us to make our children “dine out” on that. Instead, we need to make sure they diversify. Acquiring new skills, especially at such a young age, is so important because it will make children feel more capable and confident that they can tackle things, whether it is skills in life or academics in school.
Failure Is Important
Learning skills is not about getting things right the first time, and it’s so important that we get out of this habit. It is natural that we want to protect our children from failure, but failing is where our children can learn more, but it’s also where we can learn more. When people fail, it spurs them on to achieve greater things, and we have to remember this, especially if we are overprotecting them.
Help Them Find Passions
This is so vital that, as parents, we give them a wide variety of resources for them to develop confidence and, therefore, skillset. It’s not just about the academic or cultural components; even a show like Bluey is a fantastic example to teach everybody about the family unit and learning that life is about a series of peaks and troughs. Confidence is the precursor to skill and this is why we need to help our children become more confident in whatever abilities they have.
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