A Parent’s Guide On How To Build Self-Esteem In Your Child | Self-Esteem Activities For Children
Last Update on July 9, 2021 : Published on July 10, 2021
Having healthy self-esteem and self-confidence is one of the most essential characteristics of healthy life and overall wellness. Especially when it comes to early childhood development. A child’s social, emotional, mental, and behavioral health plays an important role in how they face challenges and setbacks all through their life.
Positive self-esteem and healthy self-confidence can prove useful factors in the development of good mental and emotional health. Developing confidence at an early age can help contribute to positive behavior – in society as well as at home.
During these trying times of the pandemic, many children are struggling with stress, anxiety, and the fear of the unknown. Now more than ever, building self-esteem in children is important.
Below are the ways, you as parents and guardians, can help boost your child’s self-esteem and confidence.
How To Boost Self-Esteem In Children?
Self-esteem and self-confidence in children can manifest as how they think of themselves and their ability to manage day-to-day challenges. Self-esteem in a child can be shaped by their parents’, guardians’, or teachers’ unconditional love, support, and encouragement.
Healthy self-esteem in a child may look like them showing empathy, having good and polite manners, being compassionate, being giving, or being grateful. Healthy self-esteem and confidence don’t mean being arrogant or narcissistic.
Here are some tips on how to build self-esteem in your child:
1. Showing Them Love & Support
Letting your child know how much you love them – with your actions and words – can mean a lot when it comes to boosting their self-esteem and confidence. Showing your love and support also gives them a sense of security while at the same time it can act as a foundation for their future relationships.
Cuddle with your kids, tell them ‘I love you’ whenever you can, spend time with them, play with them. Express your feelings to them. This will increase their confidence and self-esteem and help them form meaningful bonds with their friends and peers later in life.
2. Encouraging Them To Have Fun
Having fun is the epitome of childhood. And having fun together with your children is the cherry on top of the cake. Playing and having fun with your kid shows them that you like spending time with them and that you enjoy their company.
This way kids develop confidence in their social ability and increase their happiness and satisfaction levels. Encouraging them to have fun decreases the risk of depression as well.
3. Giving Them Responsibilities
Teaching your child to be responsible by giving them chores to do around the house can also be an amazing and productive way to boost their self-esteem. It gives them a sense of purpose and teaches them responsibility too.
Having responsibilities provides them with a sense of control and giving them chores to do can help them build their confidence. Kids need opportunities to show competence and contribute at home.
Ask them to set the table, take the dog out, help you cook, and make their beds. These small activities can help boost their confidence.
4. Stepping Back & Encouraging Independent Behavior
Stepping back and encouraging independence can go a long way in building confidence and self-esteem in children. As kids grow up, they like to do things on their own (eg. going to school by themselves, helping their siblings, etc). Encourage this behavior.
Letting them make their own decisions and figuring how to do things on their own can be a great way to boost their confidence in their abilities. If you constantly question their choices and decisions, it can take away their sense of autonomy.
As your kid grows up, learn to step back and let your child take risks, and learn from their mistakes.
5. Avoid Overpraising Them
As I previously mentioned, showing them love and support is an important part of building their self-esteem, however, make sure you don’t smother them by overpraising them. Telling them that they are doing fantastic when they are not using their full potential can do more harm than good in the long run.
No kid is perfect and telling them that they are can inflate their ego and make them think that they are incapable of making mistakes.
6. Let Them Make Their Own Choices
When kids take healthy risks and make their own choices, they feel capable. Encourage them to make their decisions (whether it is about schoolwork or making a dinner choice) but at the same time make them aware of the consequences of their choices.
To have confidence in themselves and their abilities, kids need to make their own choices and take responsibility for their choices. Let them make mistakes and find solutions to their problems on their own. It’ll help them make smart choices in the future.
7. Encourage Them To Follow Their Dreams
Another way to boost your child’s self-confidence is to encourage them to follow their dreams. If they show interest in something, then let them pursue their interests and make sure they follow through. No matter how small or big their interests are; it could be beating their sibling’s high score in a video game or following their dreams of becoming an astronaut, encouraging them.
The thing here to keep in mind is to support them and make sure they finish what they started. This will make their confidence and sense of achievement soar.
Self-Esteem Activities For Children
Here some healthy self-esteem activities you can engage in with your children:
1. List Their Wins
One of the best activities to build your confidence is to remind your child of their successes. What you need to do this activity are a pen and paper.
How To:
- Ask your child to write down their achievements so far on the paper.
- To boost their confidence and morale, you can ask them to write their daily win too.
- Once they’ve written their wins, remind them that failures are a part of life and are important if they want to succeed.
2. ‘I Am Afraid But…’
Fear is a normal emotion in children. This activity will make your child face their fear and move on from them. What you need is paper and a pen.
How To:
- Ask your child to list their fears on the paper. Example;
– I’m afraid to swim because…
– I’m afraid to make friends because…
- Secondly, ask your child to write down the possible outcomes they can think of if they faced their fear.
- Next, in front of the negative outcome, ask them to write at least one positive outcome they can think of.
3. Chore With A Purpose
As mentioned in a previous point, letting your child assume responsibility can help boost their confidence. For this activity you need much.
How To:
- Make a list of chores that you think your child can do. Example: taking the dog for a walk, watering the plants, setting the table, etc.
- Once your kid completes the chore, praise them but not overly. If they make a mistake, correct them and move on.
- Giving kids chores can continue to build their confidence and in their ability to handle simple chores around the house.
4. Positive Self-Talk
Negative self-talk is a sign of low self-confidence and low self-esteem. This activity will change their perspective and motivate them to have positive self-talk. You need a pen and paper for this activity.
How To:
- On a piece of paper, make two columns. On one side write “Negative self-talk” and on the other side write “Positive self-talk”.
- Ask your kid to write all negative statements they think about themselves under ‘Negative self-talk’.
- Once that’s done, ask them to turn those negative statements into positive statements. Make sure the positive statements are clear and highlight the ability of your child.
Books On Building A Child’s Self-Esteem
Here are some book recommendations you can use to teach your child the importance of self-esteem and how to build it:
1. Amazing Grace By Mary Hoffman
2. The Story Of Ferdinand By Munro Leaf
3. Leo The Late Bloomer By Robert Kraus
4. Giraffes Can’t Dance By Giles Andreae
5. Calvin Can’t Fly By Jennifer Berne
6. Ballerino Nate By Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Self-esteem is an important part of character and personality development. I hope the above information will help you learn how to build self-esteem in your child. For more, you can write to us at info@calmsage.com or follow us on social media.
Take Care!
About The Author
Swarnakshi Sharma
Swarnakshi is a content writer at Calm sage, who believes in a healthier lifestyle for mind and body. A fighter and survivor of depression, she strives to reach and help spread awareness on ending the stigma surrounding mental health issues. A spiritual person at heart, she believes in destiny and the power of Self. She is an avid reader and writer and likes to spend her free time baking and learning about world cultures.
