Tips to Help Raise Your Child’s Self Esteem
1) Listen to how you speak to your child. Do you tend to criticize, even unknowingly? Change your tone of voice or your words to show that you accept your child rather than showing criticism.
2) Give your children chores around the house. Use your child’s emotional as well as chronological age to help set chores up. They may be able to vacuum, dust furniture, clear the table at night or take out the trash. Create a chart to help them remember and track their progress. Provide rewards for completing the chores. The sense of accomplishment they will get from having responsibilities will help them feel better about themselves.
3) Find ways to build upon their strengths. If your child likes to draw, make sure they have ample opportunity to develop their talent and interest. Many times, if they struggle in one area, such as schoolwork, it will become the focus of their view of themselves. Creating areas of success will help them to focus instead on areas in which they excel.
4) Break large tasks into smaller chunks so your children can have a sense of accomplishment along the way. If they have a large school project coming up, help them to break it down into steps. They will feel better about the project and end with knowing they have been productive rather than looking at the whole project and becoming overwhelmed.
5) Set goals to help your children improve in areas in which they have shortcomings. Understand what their limitations are and build upon them rather than focusing on them.
6) Find ways in which your children can make decisions. No matter how small the decision may be, such as what to wear each morning, giving them control of some decisions will help them feel capable. Other places you can begin introducing decision making might be: choosing dinner one night a week, choosing which toy to play with, or choosing to do homework before an afternoon snack or immediately after school.
