Helping Your Child with their Confidence

Last Updated on 24 March 2023 by Heavensa

In the many core values and skills your child should be developing is confidence. This is the cornerstone of where your child is going to grow into who they are when they’re older, and it also gives them that determination to try new things and go further in their skills.

Some children are naturally shy, which is understandable. And that also can be a lot harder for them to crack – when children freeze up and have issues with their confidence it can make them a lot more reserved and unlikely to pick up new hobbies.

While this should never be seen as a drawback in your child’s development, we should always try to facilitate ways your child can build up on their skills. Here are some ways you can help your child build up to being a lot more confident in themselves.

Work to your child’s strengths

When children don’t feel confident in themselves it can mean that they’re less likely to work on those weak areas, nor go further with their strengths. You should highlight your child’s core strengths and remind them of what they can do for them in both school life and outside of school. Your child might be a lot more practical and hands on for instance – this is where you can get your child involved in cooking, baking or arts and crafts. Lean into things that make your child happy to maximise their potential.

Help your child with their homework

This can vary from helping them work out particular sums in their maths homework or sitting there and providing help now and then, but that presence can really help. Sometimes your child is going to have to pick up homework on a subject that they really hate, or at least struggle with. This is where you can provide alternatives to the problems they’re having, and present it in a manner that helps them understand what they need to do better.

Explore extracurricular activities or sports

Either of these kinds of activities are designed to help kids find what makes them happy and how they improve their self-esteem. This independent school in Herts has a range of activities for their students to explore that will build on their communication, decision making and resilience skills – key areas to boost confidence. Including a badminton team so get that badminton racquet out!

Help your child identify activities they might take a shine to; they might prefer more hands-on activities or they are a natural at tennis. Whatever they enjoy you should let them have the chance to try it out on a regular basis.

Let your child make their own key decisions

Giving your child responsibility will help them with their independence and understanding of what they need to pick up when you’re not around. Having them make decisions helps them become aware of what they can and can’t do as well – something that will help them when it comes to more complex issues later on in life. 

Have your child make choices about what they’d like to do with their spare time, like playing with their friends or family, watching TV, or trying something new. This is also a great opportunity to give them new responsibilities, like keeping themselves clean, tidying up after themselves and so on.

Confidence can gradually grow in your child over time through these different methods. Try out lots of different activities to keep them focused, but also keep things realistic. You don’t want to upset or stress your child out – the idea is to keep your child happy and keen to explore lots of new things. Soon that confidence will truly flourish, and you’ll see your child grow to new heights.