We continually talk about self-esteem, about what It is important to have a healthy self-esteem. It affects all areas of our life whether we like it or not. Their training begins when we are children, that is why it is so important that we know how to promote self-esteem in children. Your emotional health is at stake. We leave you some tips on how to promote self-esteem in children.
What is self-esteem?
Self-esteem is the perception we have of ourselves, our personal assessment from our physique to our way of being. Our emotional security will depend on it. It is not something stable, it is a conception that can be changed and improved.
Self-esteem is gestating in childhood, from the age of 5-6 when we begin to form our personality, and to create the concept of how others are and how they see us. Will be determined by our family and school environment, so it is our responsibility that children develop good self-esteem and be healthy adults.
We leave you some tips on how to promote self-esteem in children
How to promote self-esteem in children:
- Show your affection towards him / her. In words, kisses, caresses, looks ... do not save signs of affection no matter how much you think he already knows you love him. There are never too many tokens of love, and when they are older they will probably not be so receptive. Take advantage and make him see all the love you have for him.
- Set limits. Many parents, out of ignorance, think that a child without limits will be a healthier child emotionally. Well, it is the opposite. Children by nature will seek to push you to the limit to see how far they can go. We adults should be the ones who know how to mark that line, that learn that there are rules and that they are to be followed. You have to be constant, consistent and consistent, if one day you tell him one thing you cannot say the opposite the next day.
- Encourage them to make decisions. Children they must learn to make decisions and assume the consequences. In life they will have to make many decisions and if they do not have this skill developed, it will be difficult for them to make them, and much more to accept their consequences. Games like chess or checkers are games where you have to make decisions. It is a good way to introduce important concepts through the game.
- Measure your words. We all remember a phrase we heard or were told as children that marked a before and after. They may seem like harmless phrases but in the mind of a child who is beginning to develop his own perception, it can be brutal. They create wounds that are difficult to erase. Avoid telling him that he is stupid, mean, aggressive ... or he will take it as reality and behave as such. Also avoid comparisons if you have multiple children or correct in public. It is praised in public and corrected in private.
- Allow him to make mistakes. If you go after the child avoiding all his possible mistakes he will not learn from them. Needs to make mistakes, fall, learn from them, and get back up. Do not scold or solve it. You can calmly explain how to do so that it does not happen again. If you forget a class assignment, don't rush to get it. Let him take the consequences and thus he will learn not to forget his jobs.
- Promote responsibility. Letting them do housework according to their home allows them to be more responsible and more autonomous.
- Boost their skills. All children have something that they are very good at and like. Finding out what they are and encouraging them to do related activities will greatly improve their self-esteem.
- Set an example. Children have already seen a lot of times that they learn fundamentally through play and through example. If you make a mistake, do not be hard on yourself, accept the consequences of your actions, be kind to yourself, if there is a problem, look for a solution, bring out the positive side of things ...
In short, children They need us to treat them with love and respect, to be heard and taken into account. There is no child who complains of an excess of love in his childhood, but if the sensation of absence was real or not.
Because remember ... although self-esteem is something that can be changed and improved, if we already have a healthy self-esteem from a young age, we will save ourselves many problems in the future.