Kids are full of life. While we think that adults can teach them a lot, kids too can teach us a thing or two about life in the simplest of ways. One thing to notice is how kids build confidence. Some kids go on to become confident students and adults because of certain behaviors or patterns they follow in their childhood. Let’s see how they do it, which will also give you a clue about how to build confidence in your kids.
Kids build confidence by trying new things. They’re not afraid to make mistakes and try something different to find their passion. They also work hard to get good academic results and participate in extracurricular activities from a young age to hone their talents. Confident kids are always busy doing something productive so there’s no room for self-doubt or destructive thinking.
What Helps Kids Build Confidence?
Here is a detailed view of what kids do that build their confidence and can help your child gain more confidence too.
Eager To Learn
Some kids are unafraid to try new things. Whether it’s a new gardening class at school or a kids’ mini marathon in their neighborhood, they want to try it all. They’re eager to learn new things to understand what they enjoy. This helps them socialize at an early age, so there’s no room for social awkwardness when they grow up.
They’re not only comfortable meeting new people but also comfortable to go out of their comfort zone when trying new things. This helps them build confidence.
If you want to build more confidence in your kids, try enrolling them for new activities at home and school so they can open up to the world within and around them. This could be anything. From martial arts and dance to knitting and sudoku, you have so many options around.
Ask More Questions
Kids who ask more questions get their doubts solved rather than keeping them in their heads. Solving more doubts means gaining more knowledge which is linked to confidence-building. In comparison, kids who are afraid to ask questions for reasons like they’ll be judged or they’ll not be heard lack confidence already because they’re unable to open up and not asking questions only exacerbates the problem.
Asking more questions or probing is an excellent activity because it is not only a great way to gain more knowledge but is also useful in getting to know more people. It helps kids open up in a lot of ways.
There’s a fun thing you can do for your kids if you want them to be more confident in asking questions. Create a mini test or a fun activity that requires them to only ask questions! For example, your kid and her group of friends can each play this game where one starts asking a question and the kid sitting next to them can ask a another that starts with the last word of the previous question and so on.
Not Afraid To Fail
kids who are unafraid of failure, are naturally unafraid to try new things. They have the capacity to get back up and move on which helps build long-term confidence and resilience. These kids also have the power to take feedback well and be responsive instead of reactive. They fall, get back up fast and improve even faster.
To help your kids befriend mistakes, it’s best to make them understand the importance of mistakes. You can always give them examples of confident and successful people who wouldn’t have reached where they are today if they hadn’t made mistakes. Kids learn very quickly via storytelling, so you can go for fictional stories as well.
The more you’re able to demonstrate that it’s okay to make mistakes, the quicker your child will learn. For example, make tripping over things humorous and normal rather than something to be ashamed or embarrassed of. For example, if you drop something accidentally, laugh it off and say things like “Good I not dropped this cracked, old vase. I’d never have thought of getting a nice new one if this hadn’t happened.”
Such incidents are excellent opportunities for you to show to your kids how mistakes can often lead to learnings, acceptance and eventually, success.
Kids’ Confidence Reflects Your Environment
Kids are like sponges. They absorb their environment and reflect it. If you’re trying to build confidence in your child, it’s important that you analyze whether you lack confidence and how you can learn it, in order to create an environment that’s conducive to your child’s overall development. Kids who learn confidence at a young age, face fewer inner conflict and challenges in their adult life. Imagine, you can help them overcome some adult life challenges even before they face them!
Start today because all kids deserve to be confident.
