Building Your Child's Self-Esteem

Self-esteem has become one of those buzzwords - like "good communication" - we hear from all the experts how important it is but no one tells us exactly how to achieve it. In this four-part series we will use the Internet to explore in practical, concrete ways how to build your child's self-esteem.

The best advice I have found for building your child's self-esteem comes from two prominent researchers in the field, Harris Clemes and Reynold Bean. In their 1981 classic book, Self-Esteem: The Key to Your Child's Well-Being, they define the four conditions of self-esteem in children:

A Sense of CONNECTIVENESS

A Sense of UNIQUENESS

A Sense of POWER

A Sense of MODELS

The first three articles in this series - Connectiveness, Uniqueness, and Power - can be found in the Previous Features section. I am putting the Self-Esteem series on hold just for this week to offer the Gardening With Kids feature in time for Earth Day and National Arbor Day. You might want to catch up by reading the first three articles before I come back next week with the conclusion to Building Your Child's Self-Esteem - A Sense of Models.