How to Build Your Child's Self Esteem
From your Parenting of K-6 Children Guide

[b]How to Build Your Child's Self-Esteem [/b]

Difficulty Level:    Time Required: Ongoing

1. Build your child's sense of connectiveness. Physical touch and loving words from parents are the first step.
2. Provide opportunities for him to feel that he is a functional and important member of his family, school class, group of friends, sports team, church, neighborhood, and community.
3. Teach your child good social and conversational skills by modeling, direct teaching, and guided practice. These skills will enable him to have positive interactions with others.
4. Tell him your family stories and talk about his ancestors, heritage, and nationality in a positive way.
5. Build your child's sense of uniqueness. Children need to feel that others think they have special qualities and talents. Find opportunities to point these out to him.
6. Let your child express himself in his own way. Show respect for his thoughts and feelings so he will learn to do the same.
7. Encourage your child's curiosity, creativity, and imagination. Teach him to satisfy curiosity with learning and convey the joy of learning in everything you do.
8. Build your child's sense of power. Help him succeed by providing the support, teaching, and resources he needs to accomplish what he sets out to do.
9. Give him responsibilities in the family and allow his input into decisions that affect him.
10. Provide many opportunities for him to practice new skills he learns. Teach him to cope with failure by analyzing it, setting reasonable standards, and not overreacting.
11. Teach him good problem-solving and decision-making skills. Teach him to prioritize, think about consequences, and plan a course of action.
12. Build your child's sense of models. Show by your own actions the appropriate way to behave.
13. Teach your child right from wrong. Discuss your own values as you encounter dilemmas and decisions. Encourage him to apply those values to his own decision-making.
14. Provide a broad range of experiences for your child so he will have more confidence in facing new experiences. At the same time maintain structure and order in your day-to-day life.
    

Tips:

1. Poor self-esteem can often be traced to a deficit in one of the four conditions of self-esteem – connectiveness, uniqueness, power, or models.

Related Information:

• Building Your Child's Sense of Connectiveness
• Building Your Child's Sense of Uniqueness
• Building Your Child's Sense of Power
• Building Your Child's Sense of Models
• Self-Esteem Net Links at Parenting of K-6 Children
  

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