In this post, we are going to discuss how to improve self-esteem in children and how we can help them to develop positive self-image so that they can be successful in any area of their life.
Self-esteem comprises of an individual’s overall beliefs about their own worth and capabilities, whatever thoughts a person holds deep inside their mind about themselves decides how their life is going to get shaped and also how they are going to act under different circumstances. An adult mind is full of deeply rooted beliefs so it becomes a little difficult to improve one’s self-esteem after a certain age but kids are in the phase of forming new beliefs so we can easily help them to form a good self-image at an early stage.
Importance of Self-Esteem in a Kid’s Life
One of the greatest gifts that parents can ever give to their children is a healthy self-esteem because the attitude of holding positive thoughts about oneself is what leads a kid to become a happy individual in the future who is confident and in control of their reality.
A lot of psychological issues that an adult usually faces in their life comes from the type of beliefs they have formed about themselves in childhood, a kid with an healthy self-esteem grow up to become an adult who has less emotional problems.
Children with positive self-esteem have the following qualities:-
1-Kids with higher self-esteem are known to be more self-dependent than others.
2-They take complete responsibility for whatever happens in their life.
3-These children take pride in their accomplishments whereas they accept their failures with a positive attitude.
4- They are highly tolerant to frustration.
5-They are always ready for new challenges and changes in life.
6-These children deal with both positive and negative emotions in a balanced way.
7-They are always ready to help others.
Children with low self-esteem have the following drawbacks:-
1-These children are not ready for changes in life and they do not try out new things.
2-They always seek attention from others because they feel unloved and unwanted.
3-Such kids learn to blame others for their own shortcomings at an early age.
4-These children are not very tolerant to frustration and they easily give up.
5-Anxiety problems among these kids are very common.
6-Children with low self-esteem gets easily influenced by others.
Ways to Help Kids to Develop a Healthy Self Esteem
Self-esteem is a result of experiences a child have in their life. When they start to believe that they are capable to achieve their goals, it helps them to develop a better self-image.
Children start to feel effective when they see for themselves that qualities like hard work, goal setting and determination helps one to generate positive results in life. This is why we believe that every kid must learn about goal setting we have also written a post on this which you may want to check out – Teaching Kids about Goal Setting.
A parent’s role in the improvement of self-esteem in kids is very important because kids form their beliefs based on the opinions of the authority figures in their life. Whenever a kid achieves something big or small, their parent’s encouragement and praise fortify their confidence in their own capabilities.
People who have gained the approval of their parents in their childhood are known to be very confident, emotionally healthy and happier than others.
Steps to help children to form a healthy self-image:-
1-Children often get angry and irritated when they don’t get what they demand from their parents. For a healthy self-esteem, it is necessary that parents should not encourage such behavior and they should teach their kids to stay calm when their needs are not fulfilled.
2-Parent should teach children to settle their disputes with friends and siblings on their own.
3-One of the most important lessons that must be taught to children is the attitude of not getting affected by the opinions of others. From the point of view of developing a healthy self-esteem, it is very essential that a kid should learn to ignore when other kids tease them and they should be able to be in control of their emotions during such times.
4-Motivate kids to behave with others as they expect other people to behave with them.
5-Focus on your children’s strengths rather than pointing out their flaws. Parents should encourage their kids to use their talents without getting embarrassed. Although it is also important that a child must be aware of their weakness and work on it consistently.
6-A person with high self-esteem is known for their ability to make good decisions. You can help your kids to acquire this quality by letting them make decisions from an early stage in their life. Start by giving them small choices like letting them choose their toys, foods, clothes etc. This will enable them to make better choices with experience and it will lead them to be capable of making good decisions in future.
For further information on this, we recommend that you opt for the self-esteem coach certification course that teaches you how you can help kids to improve their self-esteem.
Here’s a Youtube video for you on how to help a child with low self-esteem:-
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Thank for the info. It’s a great reminder of how, what we say and do now can have a huge impact on our children’s life’s. It is interesting to read the behaviour between a child with high self-esteem and a child with low self-esteem. I can relate to these when looking at my brother and I as kids and now how we are as adults.
Looking forward to reading your other posts 🙂
Thank you for your response. We are happy to hear that a content resonates with your real life experiences. We will try to bring more such interesting content in the future.