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Learning how to help kids overcome self-doubt is essential knowledge that parents need to know so that they may aid their kids in growing into confident and well-adjusted adults.
Elaine Vanderberg, author of the children’s book “Chloe The Left Behind Angel,” encourages parents and kids to discover the transformative power of resilience and courage. It’s a wonderful book full of beautiful illustrations and a great story that every young one can benefit from. Parents looking to read their kids some valuable bedtime stories should certainly have this book on their shelves.
With that in mind, let’s learn how we, as adults, can aid kids in overcoming their self-doubts!
The First Thing to Do Is to Listen and Validate
Everybody needs time to let out their frustrations. Sometimes, they can seem like a litany of bad things mixed with a good helping of self-doubt. But that’s alright.
Prior to trying to assist children, it’s critical to be attentive to your kids. Although you may believe you understand the true cause of your child’s self-doubt, your child may have quite a different narrative to share. Be attentive to them, validate their feelings or thoughts, and help them navigate through them if needed.
Parents Should Aim to Uncover the Underlying Emotions
Self-doubt and negative emotions are intimately related. In fact, children with high levels of anxiety and sadness were found to be more prone to self-doubt, according to research published in Child Development. Self-doubt can also result from negative prior events, even after you believe the issue has been handled.
When self-doubt begins to sneak in, ask your youngster to articulate their feelings. Are they concerned about failing to finish a task? Do they feel awkward about sitting by themselves during lunch? Do they find math difficult? Your youngster might start processing their emotions once they unpack them.
Teach Your Kid to Zoom in On Their Weaknesses and Strengths
Kids who have strong emotions of self-doubt are typically overburdened with a task. This is an important detail to take note of when learning how to help kids overcome self-doubt. When a child joins a basketball team, for example, he may see the entire picture (the size of the court, the passing, the other kids, the hoop, etc.) and get buried in self-doubt instead of concentrating on the reality that he already understands how to dribble.
Your youngster should learn to focus on both their talents and flaws. One of the many things that the story of “Chloe The Left Behind Angel” is about is being able to be in the present moment. By teaching them to zoom in, they could zoom in on the situation to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages and devise a strategy to mitigate the latter.
With this outlook, rather than viewing the situation through a broad perspective and concluding that they are powerless, they can see that things aren’t as hopeless as they thought they’d be. This will, in turn, aid your young one to overcome self-doubt.
Teach Children How to Engage in Realistic Self-Talk
In addition to being realistic, negative thinkers must learn ways to reframe their thoughts by using positive self-talk to counterbalance their negative self-talk. We aren’t doing children any favors if we continuously instruct them to counteract pessimistic ideas with optimistic or goal-oriented ones.
Ask your child to jot down all the negative things in their head. Next is to instruct them to write all their positive thoughts. Finally, we can then focus on taking actions that they can take to prevent the bad thing from happening.
Don’t Forget to Make Corrections When Needed
Despite our often “bad use of language” escaping our mouths, most parents recognize how important it is to provide a good example for their children. However, it may be simple to fall victim to self-defeating thoughts without even recognizing them.
Our children look up to us. Even in jest, we must be careful with the words we say. Make changes to your own self-defeating ideas to demonstrate to your children that even adults must change their perspective and concentrate on the good.
Apply What You’ve Learned on How to Help Kids Overcome Self-Doubt
Kids are going to be the future someday. If we can’t nurture or teach them to be better people, we deprive them of a happy life and make the planet more miserable. Helping kids overcome self-doubt is the first step towards a brighter and happier future for everyone!
Buy “Chloe The Left Behind Angel” so you can start helping your children overcome their self-doubt. Visit https://www.booksbyelainev.com/order/ to get a copy of the book today. Read our other articles, too, and learn why you should read short stories with morals to young kids!