Helping your children develop a healthy sense of confidence is an important priority for any parent. You want your children to feel comfortable in their own skin. But helping your child come to this place will vary by the child.
Public Speaking
Public speaking is a skill that can be difficult to develop but that serves people well. Some children might find the prospect of taking an actual public speaking course incredibly intimidating. But if you want to help your child be able to come out of their shell, find other ways to help them put themselves out there a little more.
For example, if you are part of a church group or other community organization, try to organize events where children are able to share prepared thoughts about a specific topic—they only need to share their thoughts for five minutes in order to learn something from the exercise.
Swimming
Swimming is another great way to help children develop confidence in their skin and in their bodies. As they learn different swim strokes they’ll be able to see themselves improving and developing a new skill. Additionally, swimming lessons help children overcome a fear of the water in a safe, controlled environment.
By learning to swim, they’ll be able to see that they can meet and achieve goals, that they can do physically challenging things, and that they can learn to appreciate and understand nature.
Reading
In addition to helping your children develop interests in things that push them outside of their comfort zones, help your children develop interests that allow them to develop more internally. Helping children love reading will help them learn to love the time spent with themselves and in the privacy of their minds.
Being able to develop this comfort with themselves and to be able to develop a love of learning will help them feel more confident for who they are and will enable them to be less affected by peer pressure.
As you work to help your child develop a healthy sense of confidence, do your best to try and listen to your child. As you listen to them, learn to understand where their insecurities lie. Be willing to recognize the personality differences in each child—know and respect your child’s needs and don’t make the mistake of labeling your child as shy or unconfident if they are actually just introverted.
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