Building a Child's Self Esteem

Parents are the most important people in any child's life. The parents are responsible for the birth of the child and the child's care and education from that point. Mother's tend to have a natural emotional bond with the children, while the fathers tend to be less emotional and more practical.

In the perfect parent and child relationship, the parent functions as a role model providing love and support for the child, while allowing the child to explore his environment and develop independence. Although there is no perfect parent child relationship in modern society, but parents should continue to strive for the best possible relationship with their children.

What parents need to know is that it is the early years of life when they have the opportunity to make the biggest impact in their children's lives. The preschool years are vitally important in building both academic skills, developing a strong bond and teaching children self esteem. When children are born they automatically look to their parents as the primary caregivers and the people who protect them from harm. For this reason they are more inclined to listen and obey their parents over any other people during this time. This provides parents to opportunity to instill good values and the foundation of a good and well grounded person before the child is old enough to be influenced by others.

Because young children are easily influenced by their parents, it is important that parents pay attention to what they say and how often they say it. Praise is good, but should be reserved for when the child actually deserves praise. Praise her for throwing trash away, but not for simply laying on the floor. The child needs to be motivated to learn new things and this is when praise should be used. Correction and redirection are needed at times, but these should come in the form of criticism, but rather by showing them a way to behave better.

Even very young children know when they are told not to do something without being given a better alternative. When correcting children it is important to either give them more positive options or to ask the child to give some suggestions on what would have been better behavior. They can often make better suggestions than a parent can think of.

When a child has a learning disability it may be more difficult to build a strong bond and self esteem, but it can be done. The first thing the parent needs to do is learn about the disability and how children with this disability learn. Then the environment needs to be adapted for the child according to this information. Parents then need to work closely with other caregivers and teachers to insure consistency.

No matter how well a parent prepares a child for the world, there will be disappointments in life that will cause pain. The important thing to remember is that if the parent has given the child a good foundation, the child will be prepared to handle this and will recover more quickly.