We all want the best for our children. We invest in their education, hoping to secure their financial and emotional wellbeing for the future. But sometimes children just need that additional bit of support and guidance that will help them go the extra mile and succeed.
So how do you raise a well-rounded child? The key is to create an atmosphere of support at home so that your child grows up confident and motivated with his or her achievements and ambitions.
Here are a few techniques to help you raise a child who is well-balanced and happy with his or her accomplishments.
Be involved but encourage their autonomy
Years and years of research has shown that the best kind of parenting is when you are involved and responsive, setting reasonable expectations for your child while respecting his or her autonomy.
Offer guidance but don’t micromanage your kids. The happiest, most successful children have parents who let them feel that they are capable of accomplishing anything. I know of parents who get overly involved with their children’s affairs: from taking over their children’s homework and school projects (they reason that they just want to help their child get the best grades) to choosing their child’s extra-curricular activities.
Good parenting is allowing your child to discover and develop a sense of themselves and their own potential, while maintaining a safety net of support to help them when things don’t go to plan. Start by letting them do school tasks without continued or unnecessary intervention. Doing things for your children unnecessarily can reduce their motivation and increase their dependency on you rather than on themselves. If you treat your child as if he or she is not capable of doing something, you are damaging their confidence. Let them accomplish the task and once they’ve done it, don’t forget to give them plenty of confidence-boosting praise.
Heap on praise
A person’s mind-set can influence behaviour. If you want your child to strive harder, praise him or her for his or her hard work. Children who are given positive feedback for the things they do well, no matter how small, are more willing and more confident of taking risks and far more resilient when it comes to coping with failure.
Respect your child’s learning style
Some children like to do their homework with a group, while some like to do it in complete silence. Pay attention to how your child learns best. If your child learns best musically, then consider playing songs that can help him or her memorize multiplication tables. If they’re more visual, you could use flash cards or tablets.
Encourage special skills
Every child has a unique talent. Allow this talent to blossom whether at school or at home with activities that will hone your child’s special skills. Is your child brilliant in arts? Take him or her shopping for art supplies and encourage him or her to take art classes. Enrolling children in lessons can open their minds and is an opportunity for intellectual and personal development.
Pick up a book every day
Studies have shown that children who read often are less likely to have behavioural problems in school. Teach your child to love books. Read to them when they are younger and as soon as they learn how to read, encourage them to pick up a book every day. Keep books at home or let them make trips to the public library. Reading will help your child develop a good vocabulary, broaden his or her way of thinking and make them more confident and independent.
Have more conversation time
Your child can learn a lot from relaxed conversations with you. Keep the communication channels open. Role modeling positive talk has enormous benefits for a child’s long-term happiness. This is because it demonstrates how to work through problems and achieve a solution in a logical and social way. It can also help relieve your child of stress that can disturb parts of the brain involved in focusing, learning and memory. Being a parent is one of the most important jobs in the world. Your kids look up to you, so you need to be clear about your own values. Set an example for a life that they would want to follow.
About the writer
Internationally-renowned life coach and cognitive behavioural hypnotherapist Russell Hemmings has developed the Study Plus Programme to help your child grow in confidence and motivation when it comes to their academic work.
Hemmings has taken the cutting edge hypnotherapy techniques he uses to help top sports and business clients achieve success and created a specialist programme specifically designed for children. This unique learning experience has helped countless children worldwide achieve the academic success that means they can progress to best universities. It teaches them strategies that will pay off again and again throughout their life and represent a real investment in their future.
Website: www.russellhemmings.co.uk Facebook page: www.facebook.com/bridgehypnotherapyclinic Telephone 04 427 3627 or 055 2867275.
