Helping Your Child Get stronger
Tips from psychologist Joel Haber
By building self-confidence, kids learn to act confidently. Practice having your child look other kids directly in the eye when speaking or listening to them: remind your child to stand up straight and speak loud enough to be heard.
Bullying victims are often self-critical. Help your child focus on individual strengths and positive attributes.
Winning isn’t everything. At home encourage and reward effort.
Make a confidence plan when your kid faces criticism: Help her/him evaluate the accuracy of the criticism. If it is true, they can change it. If it is not true, help them move on.
Give your child the language to feel confident: Have him practice empowering thoughts, such as, ” I had a rough year, but next year can be better.”
Kids need to build resilience so they can make better decisions that allow them to be independent and functional.