How to Help Children Feel Smart

Self-confidence is crucial for a child's development. In order to take on new challenges and continue meeting old ones, children need to believe that they can complete tasks successfully. As reported by Carol Colman and David Perlmutter in the book "Raise a Smarter Child by Kindergarten," children who feel smart and genuinely believe themselves to be smart will participate more often in class, get higher grades and most likely feel better about themselves.

How to Help Children Feel Positive About Themselves

Children are not born with a positive attitude about themselves, how they feel about themselves is born through their experiences, how those experiences emotionally and psychologically affects them, and the positive or negative relationships they have with the people around them. A child, who is repeatedly told that he will never amount to anything, never told I love you, or never hugged, has more of a chance of feeling negatively about himself than a child who is repeatedly praised and told how much he is loved and accepted. Even still, some children can be adorned with positive reinforcement, experiences, and relationships, and still feel negatively about themselves. 

To help children feel positively about themselves, and develop their self esteem, teach them about decision making, and how to recognize when they have made a good decision. Children, like adults make decisions all the time, but unlike adults, are often not aware that they are doing so. Children who make good decisions, or feel like they are capable of making good decisions are more likely to feel confident, capable and good about themselves. So the next time your child has a decision to make, you will have some guidelines on how to use it as an opportunity to help make him feel positive about himself.

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     Give your child your complete and undivided attention. Turn off the television,

my son