How to Develop Confidence in Your Child

Among the several life skills that a child would have to pick up from an early age, confidence happens to be one of the most important ones. Why does a child need to be confident from the get go? Who do they need to impress? Can they not develop confidence at a later stage of their lives?

To get the most authentic feedback on the subject, we picked the minds of some of the best educators of a CBSE Board School in Kolkata and here is what we found – the speed at which upskilling happens for a child, it is imperative that they develop confidence from an early stage so that they can tackle the several obstacles they may have to face. As parents or educators, we also have a number of other responsibilities and cannot devote all the time to the children (like we would want to). A confident child will learn to overcome the obstacles with minimal support. A child looks up to their parents grandparents, family members, teachers and even peers and expects appreciation for a job well done. But in addition, the child also needs to do their task right to improve their confidence levels. Finally, there is no age to learn a new skill. However, there is a benefit of learning or adapting to them at an early stage. Keep that in mind, a child who can gain confidence at an early age would do much better in various walks of life.

Now that we have answers to some important questions, let us move on to how a parent can help in the development of their child’s confidence.

Lead by example

As a grown up some tasks or solutions would come to us naturally. However, we should use certain instances or examples to explain to the child how we thought something was difficult but we found a way to solve the problem or overcome the obstacle. When they hear our stories, they would be able to relate to our confidence and in the process develop their own.

Encourage new experiences

There will be several things that a child has not experienced so far. Use these things or situations as a confidence building tool. Let the child try something by themselves. Guide them in advance, tell them about some of the obstacles and how to overcome them but let them manage the execution alone. A practical experience will help develop confidence significantly for a child. Educators who promote Girl Child Education Empowerment in Kolkata, incorporate special extracurricular activities including self-defense classes in school as a method to boost the confidence of the girls to protect themselves in case they are facing a dangerous situation.

Failures and mistakes are a part of the learning

As the child tries something new, they are liable to fail or make a mistake. Instead of rebuking them, help them understand what went wrong. Pick them up, dust them off and let them have another shot. When they receive support from you, they will want to achieve the target even more.

Efforts must be praised

Think of the time when your child was a toddler and was trying to crawl or better, stand for the first time. As a parent, you probably went all over the place and cheered them to the end of the world. The child probably failed multiple times before they could finally stand properly. Now think of the praises you showered at your child, while they were trying and after they succeeded. In both situations, you were equally enthusiastic and showered the same number of praises. The result was a confident toddler standing up by themselves. Even though the toddler has grown up quite a bit, their basic human tendency remains the same.

Goal setting and supporting success

It is important to help your child understand what they need to achieve and when. Sometimes fragmenting a task and setting up smaller goals which provide immediate success is important so that the child does not get overwhelmed about the mammoth task ahead. Some of the best educators of a CBSE Board School in Kolkata, advise that parents should start with smaller, achievable goals and slowly increase the difficulty levels so that the child feels confident with every achieved goal and gets motivated for the next one.

We hope this article gave you some insight on the importance of building confidence and how you can accelerate the development of this life skill for your children.

Sharmila Sharma is the coordinator of Sushila Birla Girls School, and writes on various parenting and education topics.