Children are like soft clay who can be molded beautifully into meaningful realities. It requires nothing major, just a pinch of patience, kindness, and a healthy dose of love and care. How easy, right? Well, not to be overwhelmed! It takes a while but with the right mindset, it is possible and worth the effort and wait.
For instance, as humans, when asked to focus on counting yellow cars, our brain tricks us into concentrating only on those yellow cars. In the process, we tend to miss out on all the other perspectives. In the same way, when our kids are growing up, we tend to pay more attention on their motor, sensory, memory, and grasping milestones that we almost miss out on understanding that these little bundles of joy are growing emotionally as well.
The tender part of the clay represents these emotions that are one day going to bloom and shape not just their reality but the way they deal with reality. Once the clay hardens, it’s not easy to break into it, just as the emotions of our kids when they are all grown up. That is why it is crucial to give them the right space to feel, acknowledge and express their emotions right from a young age. Doing so will give them a sense of confidence.
Okay, but how do we implement this?
- Acceptance: The first step on this journey starts with your mind. Portraying an attitude of acceptance towards your child’s mistakes will help them learn at every step. You need to understand that every child is different and some take time to develop their self-esteem. We can be present mindfully to improve their confidence.
- Fail to sail: Unless kids fail, they will not be able to develop a need for perseverance. Show them that is okay to fail and to try again by not giving up. You don’t have to push them, let them sink in the episode, gather some courage and then spring back up with all their energy. Be it the simplest of activities such as wearing clothes, they can still try, fail and eventually succeed with your support, words of encouragement, and love. That is when their little boat of emotions will sail to the shore.
- The negative vacuum: Practice a strict need to avoid any sort of negative commenting, discouragement, or doubt. A kid in such an environment feels the need to please rather than grow and this undesirably impacts their confidence. So, it is ideal to work towards setting up a tone, mood, and environment that is a vacuum of such negative aspects. When kids feel loved and cared for, they are happy and confident enough to not only try new things but also apply their existing abilities.
- Appreciation: When efforts are appreciated, they add value to the relationship and the person. Similarly, appreciation is a good tool to help kids develop optimal confidence. The usage of this tool needs to be done rightfully with the utmost care. Fake compliments play a reverse UNO card and create a sense of doubt in kids. That doesn’t mean you limit the appreciation, you need to use it wisely to feed their sense of effort and it is best not to tag appreciation and compliments with results, as the effort is what matters.
These small but efficient practices will make a world of a difference in silver lining your child’s personality by helping them embrace their true selves. Apart from parents, teachers to play a huge role in developing a child’s confidence, as a major chunk of learning happens in schools. Kara4Kids, a leading preschool for kids in Bangalore is embedded with the motive to raise confident children through playful learning. If you are looking for a Preschool in Bangalore that understands your child’s needs, then Kara4kids is here to meet them.
