Secure your Child’s Confidence using These Steps

Everyone likes to be good at something. Your children are not any different. They want to succeed at what they are doing and receive encouragement from you. Find out what your children’s gifts are. What their interests are. Encourage them to develop in those areas. Once you find what they enjoy, show your interest in those things too. See what you can do to support your child in the activities they enjoy. This is how you can secure your child’s confidence as they grow.

It is also nice to encourage your children to try activities outside of their comfort zone. How do you grow and gain skills as an adult? You try new activities. You expose yourself to other activities that you have an interest in but may not have mastered yet.

As our children are growing, we have a responsibility to expose them to new activities and help them develop new skills.

Confidence is a feeling of self-assurance arising from one’s appreciation of one’s own abilities or qualities.

https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/

Interested in how to raise confident children? Check out this resource: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/confidence#raising-confident-kids

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Family time activity

Weekends for us in the summer mean baseball. We are able to watch our local team play at the stadium. This is some great family time! There is something for everyone. Now that all the children are older, we seem to enjoy going even more. We can stay out later. We can do more of the in stadium activities.

Using a sports activity to secure your child’s confidence

My son has always been interested in playing soccer. That seems to be his favorite sport. He requests to play on a team each year. He works on his skills in the back yard when we go outside. 

I like to make sure we don’t get too heavy in one activity, so I have him get involved playing other sports as well. Currently, we are in baseball season with our parks and recreation department.

Needed skills for baseball success

Hitting the ball

My son is left handed so there are always many comments when he goes to bat. Mostly by the other teams’ coaches for their pitcher to not be intimidated. Now, my son is still working on making contact with the variety of pitches that come to him. His opponents do not know that. So I always tell him before the game that he is going to have the upper hand already because he is left handed. Then keep his eye on the ball. Then hit! He has to believe that he has the upper hand. I keep giving him these instructions every game. Soon he will realize he does have the upper hand and will go into the game with that belief. That makes it much harder for an opponent to beat him, if he already believes he has won.

Throwing the ball

Now this skill requires son strength and accuracy. Most of the time, my son is accurate with his throwing. The challenge presents with the distance his throw travels. He needs to build up his strength. Again I do not focus with him on what he is not doing. I focus on what he can do. 

I like the way you throw the ball towards your team mate. Your follow through is improving. We need to practice even more at home so your arm doesn’t get tired during practice and the games.

Catching the ball

Keep your eye on the ball is what I tell him for this one. The ball can come as a grounder or a pop fly, but I let him know that catching is watching the ball and then lining the glove up with the ball.

My son has to put all these components together to be successful when he plays baseball. Now, I am not a baseball wiz and I don’t know all the rules. But I can support him in his pursuit of enjoying the game, as he improves his skills. It is a challenge for him sometimes as the skills he needs for baseball are not ones he practices as much as he practices his soccer skills. He can continue to develop baseball skills as he puts more time into it and as he receives encouragement from me. I can help support his confidence by giving him feedback on his participation in baseball with focus on the aspects of the game he does well. Providing support for his confidence can also be addressed with components of the game he still needs to work on by providing instruction on how to improve, giving additional physical support or modeling of tasks, and assisting him on focusing on his improvements from game to game.

Discovering interests to support your child’s confidence

How can you know what your child likes to do? What steps should you take to develop their skills?

Watch them

You can learn so much by watching what your children do without interfering with what they are doing. Let them play. See what they gravitate towards and what they perform the longest. When you give them free time, see what activities they seek out.

Talk to them

Communication is key for all relationships. You and your children are no different. Ask them what they like to do. Find out what makes them happy by asking them directly.

Play with them

Having interaction with your children build their trust in you. It allows them to know that they can come to you. Playing is how all children learn. If you are their playmate sometimes, you are able to see their developmental level and you are also able to see what they like to do. And see when it changes. As your child grows, what they enjoyed last week may not be the same as this week. You can start to sense this if you are interacting with them.

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Ways to secure child’s confidence 

The following can be used to help support your child’s confidence and increase it. You have to be willing to put the time in with each of your children at all the stages of development to aid them with confidence development.

Verbally encourage them

Let your child know they are doing a wonderful job if they are. This does not mean tell them they are exhibiting good skills if they are not. Provide your child with caring feedback that is also honest. Give them expectations and once they meet these, praise the outcome they made happen.

Practice with them

Be an active part in what your child does. Let them know that you are interested in what they do by doing it with them. Yes, that takes some sacrificing on your part and may result in some of your personal time being taken up. But it is worth it. There is nothing better than being with your child as they develop a new skill. They become so proud of themselves.

Give them options

Sometimes your child may not excel at something as much as they had hoped. Or they may not be as good as their friends. Support them in their individuality. Let them know that they can still have fun with an activity. Give them options on how they think they can improve. Find out what they need from you. Also let them know that they can try something else after they give the current activity a trial period. 

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Check out other posts from Find Your Flourish!

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• 5 Ways to Implement Carlson’s Law to Increase Your Success
• Mastering Midlife: Page 2
• Mastering Midlife: Page 1
• New Quarter; Find out what’s new

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Resources about children’s confidence

https://www.pbs.org/parents/learn-grow/age-2/emotions-self-awareness/self-confidence Speaks directly to development of confidence before age 5 years old.

https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/self-esteem Has outcomes and effects that low confidence has on a child. Also provides ways to aid in increasing it for yourself and your children.

https://childmind.org/article/12-tips-raising-confident-kids/

I remain passionate about helping you find a balance between home and work life. Excel in both areas without compromising in one area. Check out this area on self care as I am a self care strategist and encourage you to take time for yourself, even when it seems impossible. You can do it and you are worth it!

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Be you, be focused, be well!  Find Your Flourish!  |Shanna|