Building Self Esteem in Kids
By Dana Vela, President of Sunrise Preschools, www.sunrisepreschools.com
Parents of toddlers and preschoolers will often describe their children in conversation by saying “oh, he is shy” or “she can be a real character.” Children seem to be born with their own personality, and we all delight in watching their personalities grow and develop with their little bodies. Healthy self esteem also grows and develops during the early years, and children’s caregivers, parents, and grandparents can do much more than just hope that they are doing all of the right things to help build a healthy self esteem in their little ones. Children flourish in home and preschool settings where they benefit from having both peers and adults that are good role models. Self confident children feel that they truly belong and are encouraged to be independent. The adults in a child’s life can easily contribute to a healthy self esteem by noticing their child’s strengths, such as “wow, you run fast, or can you show me again how you play that drum to the beat?” Identifying strengths and encouraging talents by celebrating the small successes can go a long way toward raising a child who is happy, content, and self confident. • Try new things! Listen to new music, try out new instruments, learn new dance moves and play new sports. Celebrate success and laugh at and learn from small mistakes. Children look to you to learn that sometimes things don’t go quite right- and it’s okay to keep trying until you learn new skills. • Provide opportunities for children to explore things on their own. Soft clay, new markers, objects to trace and scissors to cut are all easy activities for the kitchen table. Notice hard work and success! When you see that a child has grasped the new skill you can make the activities a bit more challenging. • Encourage your child to engage with other children in a social setting. Preschools and child care settings provide physical, social, and academic experiences. In a classroom setting your child will get the opportunity to master new skills while working as part of a small or large group. Children cheerfully celebrate each other’s successes, contributing to a healthy self esteem. azhealthandliving.com |August 2015
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