Self-confidence comes from an intellect of capability. A confident child needs an optimistic and genuine insight of his or her abilities. This soars out of attainments—great and small. Your heartening expressions can help develop this confidence, and this is how.

Love your child. This seems obvious, but it’s a treasure you can ever give to your child. Wherever you can, give lots of love. Up lift your child in ways possible, buy them gifts, encourage them when they need advice, be their best friend.

Give praises where due. It’s important to give your child praise and positive feedback because children amount their worth and achievements by what you think. However, be realistic in your praise. If a child fails at something praise the effort, but don’t idealistically praise the results.

Help you child set realistic goals. When your child discovers her talent, be there to support them, for instance, if they are good at sports, encourage them to join a sports team or get them a trainer. Do not undermine their talents, even when it is modelling or singing, be able to give advice. They can have their talents alongside important professions. Remember talents can take them places or win them scholarships.

Make self-love and positive self-talk. You must love yourself before you can teach your child to love him or herself. You can model this behaviour by rewarding and praising yourself when you do well. Kids are fast observers; they will mimic what they watch you do.

Teach resilience. No one succeeds at everything all the time, for example, there will be setbacks and failures, blame and agony. Use these hurdles as learning experiences rather than dwelling on the events as failures or disappointments.

Teach independence and adventure. Self-confident children are more than willing to try new things without fear of failure. Children need supervision from the side-lines. Set up situations where your kid can do things for herself and make sure the situation is safe, they need space as well.

Support their hunt of passion. Everyone excels at something, as a parent, respect and encourage your child’s interests even when they don’t interest you. Appreciate kids when they do something worthwhile. If your child sings in a school choir, go at school and cheer him/her.

Set rules and be realistic. Children are more confident when they know who is in charge and what to expect. Even if your child thinks your rules are too strict, she will have assurance in what she can and can’t do when you set rules and enforce them steadily.

Instruct relationship skills. Confidence in relationships is crucial to your child’s self-confidence. The most important initial relationship is the loving parent-child relationship. Help your child learn to maintain an inner core of confidence when someone else’s actions affect her.

Share your story. Children love to hear stories and sharing your experiences with them can help them relate better to you. Active open communication is the key to a healthy relationship between parents and children.  Children feel more comfortable when they believe that their parents have had similar experiences in challenging situations, like bullying.

Try again if you fail. It is an important belief to instil in every child. Everyone faces failure at some time or another in their life and some things take longer to clutch than others. Teach your child to accept their failures as an experience and a reason to try again and become better.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw