A Guide to Children’s Personal Growth and Wellbeing

Actively encouraging children’s personal growth and wellbeing is no small feat. It takes patience, empathy, more patience, self-control, and a good dollop of luck.

Each child is different and unique from the last. Still, there are some core teachings that you can impart to each one of them to accelerate their personal growth and wellbeing.

This section of Grow The Thought is devoted entirely to helping kids (and their guardians) overcome the unique hurdles that come with being human.

Being human is complicated, but children can learn to become confident, healthy, upstanding people when parents have the right resources.

So let’s start with the definitive guide to your child’s personal growth and wellbeing. 

If you would like to read more about a topic covered in this guide, click on the topic heading or sub-heading to go directly to the in-depth article.

Table of Contents

Understanding Mental Health in Children

Conversations about mental health were once taboo. Although teenagers and adults now embrace open dialogue about mental health struggles, Children also need to be included in discussions about mental health.

Mental health is at the forefront of personal growth, wellbeing, and early childhood development. Depression, anxiety, trauma, and all other unpleasant states of being are part of the human experience.

Unfortunately, mental health challenges can distract children from seeing life’s essential lessons because they must first overcome internal challenges.

Adults can easily engage in conversations about their feelings, but children don’t develop this skill until later. As a parent, you will need different tools, techniques, and approaches to help each child deal with their unique problems.

Some of the most common forms of childhood mental health challenges include:

Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety is persistent fear and worrying, preventing a child from adequately engaging in activities, being around people, or entering specific environments.

Depression

Depression involves constant feelings of sadness or loss that do not go away on their own. Childhood depression can occur without being related to an event, or it can develop after a specific event and persist long after other children would have recovered.

Low Self-Esteem

Low self-esteem involves feelings of low self-worth and low levels of confidence. Children with low self-esteem will be unsure of their abilities and find it hard to stand up for themselves. Children with low self-esteem often feel like they are the victim and usually have a negative image of themselves (bad, ugly, weak, etc.). 

Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD)

Children with ADHD have difficulty paying attention to something or someone for as long as other children. They can also engage in impulsive behaviors without thinking of the outcome, like being aggressive, and exhibit hyperactive behavior where they struggle to slow down.

Girls present ADHD symptoms a little differently than boys. Young girls with ADHD tend to exhibit inward behaviors like anxiety, being withdrawn and struggling to focus. They are more likely to be verbally aggressive instead of physically aggressive.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Children with OCD present a range of symptoms, the most common being extreme attention to detail, symmetry, cleanliness, or getting something exactly “right.” A child with OCD may also need to repeatedly check that something is “right,” even if they looked a minute before.

Children with OCD commonly experience violent or upsetting thoughts with an urge to act on them, such as making rude gestures or hurting themselves/others. 

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

PTSD is a response to a traumatic experience. In children, PTSD presents as frequent nightmares, anxiety and distress, intrusive thoughts, upsetting memories, emotional outbursts, and other disruptive behaviors.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Children with autism spectrum disorder find it challenging to communicate and interact.

For example, they often won’t respond to their name when called, won’t make eye contact, and won’t smile back when someone smiles at them. Interruptions to their routine can be extremely upsetting, like surprise visits from people they don’t know well or leaving home for too long. They also find many smells, tastes, lights, sounds, and physical sensations overstimulating and uncomfortable, like the texture of certain fabrics.

Girls can show less-noticeable symptoms than boys and may appear to have some functional social skills. Even though girls with ASD seem to have milder symptoms, it doesn’t mean their disorder is “milder” than a boy’s. As well as the above symptoms, girls with ASD struggle to talk about subjects outside their interests. They will also rely on others they trust to communicate for them.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)

BDD involves extreme worry about appearance or flaws in one’s body, even if the flaw is imaginary. Children with BDD place excessive emphasis on their looks, become upset by their bodies’ appearance, and sometimes become withdrawn to avoid being seen by others.

Eating Disorders

Children develop eating disorders when they start to obsess about the “ideal” or “perfect” body type, regardless of if their ideal body type is realistic or not.

Eating disorders can result from BDD, bullying, low self-esteem, trauma, and even messages children receive from the media. Their obsession leads to a fixation on losing (or sometimes gaining) weight through extreme means. Extreme eating habits can form, leading to anorexia or bulimia, which can cause severe damage to a child’s health.

Tourette Syndrome

Tourette syndrome is a neurological disorder that causes involuntary muscle jerks/vocal noises (tics) that do not serve a purpose. Symptoms of Tourette syndrome in children include:

• Involuntary movements, such as facial movements or jerking of a body part
• Grimacing
• Twitching
• Repeated movements like foot tapping or scratching
• Over-repeated actions like kissing, touching, pinching, or making offensive gestures
• Repeated verbal actions like tongue clicking, grunting, swearing, or echoing sounds or phrases they hear

How Parents Can Help a Child with a Mental Health Disorder

When it comes to childhood mental health, remember that you can’t magically cure them in an instant. Your job is to learn everything you can about what your child is facing and help them learn techniques to manage themselves, if possible.

There are some mental health challenges and diagnoses that children recover from in time with therapy and practice. However, some diagnoses are lifelong and will contribute to your child’s unique behaviors, struggles, and personality. Embracing your child for who they are and letting go of previous expectations will help you work together to address their needs.

You can support your child through listening, compassion, empathy, and perseverance. It is a balancing act of understanding and validating how they feel while encouraging behaviors that enable and empower them as much as possible.

Consider anxiety in children. It heightens a child’s fear and worries about the past, present, and future. The feeling can become so intense that they lash out, withdraw, or break down crying. Suppose you punish and force them to confront their trigger without training. In that case, the anxiety will worsen, and they will lose a lot of confidence.

And suppose you remove all of their triggers to protect them from worrying. In that case, they will never learn the techniques to manage their feelings and will still experience anxiety.

The best way forward is to identify their triggers and work together to practice managing the anxiety in a safe, controlled environment. Little by little, with your support, they learn to manage their anxiety independently, accomplishing tasks that would have been impossible before.

The first step is starting a conversation in a way they understand to help them identify how they feel and learn about what is going on.

Teaching Children About Inclusion

Inclusion is essential for people to learn at any age, no matter if they are six years old or sixty. Teach inclusion to children at an early age so they can reap the benefits and create a healthy environment for others.

Why Teaching Children About Inclusion Matters

Inclusion is about connecting with people who are different than you and encouraging them to be their genuine selves without judgment. When your child learns to be more inclusive, they will also learn about their unique individuality, becoming more empowered in who they are. 

Inclusion prevents exclusion, a form of bullying that neglects someone because they are different. No one wants to be left out or shunned, and your child could save someone from this experience. Exclusion can also be accidental when you only surround yourself with people similar to yourself.

How to Teach Your Children About Inclusion

Be Their Example of Inclusiveness

Think honestly about your beliefs and habits, and ask yourself if you practice inclusion. How often does your family interact with people from different backgrounds than your own? If there’s no diversity, think about and research what you would like to learn about other people, and join groups to make a change.

Show Your Child How to Be Inclusive

Let your child see you treat people from different backgrounds with respect and friendliness and only speak about others with kind, respectful language.

Teach Your Child to Practice Empathy

Genuine inclusion comes from having empathy for other people. Encourage your child to put themselves in someone else’s shoes, to think about how others feel, and how their actions and words can make that person feel better or worse.

Be Prepared to Answer Lots of Questions

Maintain an honest and respectful dialogue with your kids, and try hard to answer questions as best you can. If you don’t know the answer to something, say that you don’t know right now, and go and research the topic. Then you can give your children the correct information later.

Correct Non-Inclusive Language and Ideas

Your child might refer to other people as “weird” or ask why “they” are not like “us.” Try explaining to them that there are no such things as “normal” and “weird” since every human is different from the next.

Explain that being part of the “in-crowd” and following what most people do or say is not always good behavior. They should make their own decisions and stand up for what is right, especially when no one else is willing to do the right thing.

If your child uses inappropriate language when talking about other people, calmly let them know that that’s not how they should speak and give them acceptable alternatives.

Expose Your Child to Diverse Experiences

Normalize diversity by letting your child get used to it first-hand. Museums, cultural events, traveling, movies, TV shows, and even the toys they play with can bring diversity into their lives. You can also buy them a world map or a globe to put everything into context.

Emphasize Similarities

No matter the differences, there are always more similarities between people. Everybody is human, and everyone shares the same essential needs, such as being included, understood, treated with respect, and having fun. 

Teaching Children to Use the Internet Safely

Children will use the internet in some way, whether in school, for entertainment, or to socialize with friends. The internet can be a blessing and a curse because it gives children access to opportunities and new information while simultaneously making them vulnerable to harmful experiences.

To teach your child how to stay safe on the internet, they will need to know the following:

• How to identify predators, scammers, and sources of computer viruses
• Why they shouldn’t look at adult content and how it can be damaging
• How to cope with online bullying, respond to online bullying, and how to stop themselves from bullying others online
• The effects of too much screen time on children and the importance of taking breaks

Teaching Children How to Identify Predators Online

Online predators can target any child. However, the most at-risk kids are those who feel lonely, have low self-esteem, or are neurodivergent and may not understand appropriate social behavior.

Step 1: Talk to Your Child About Online Predators

In a calm and safe environment, begin a conversation with your child about friends and other people they may have spoken with online.

You can tell them that sometimes, people are not who they say they are, like a man, woman, or teenager who pretends to be a child so they can become their friend. These “pretenders” might be on social media, online chatrooms, or even your kid’s video game platforms.

You can explain that we can’t trust people who lie to us, and your child must be careful if they meet strangers online because it can be hard to know if they are telling the truth about who they are. Remind them that they don’t want to be friends with someone who lies about who they are. Talking online with friends they have met in person is okay, but they must practice caution with strangers.

You can show your child news stories of children who met with online predators so they understand that there are dangers. Make sure these are appropriate for their age group, or invent your own example stories if you can’t find news stories suitable for them.

Step 2: Talk About Risky/Dangerous Behavior They Need to Avoid

Children are curious and often very trusting if they aren’t aware of the consequences. Let them know that it is dangerous to speak with strangers they don’t know and that they absolutely cannot:

• Tell strangers where they live
• Tell strangers where they go to school
• Leave the house to meet strangers
• Accept friend requests from strangers on social media
• Accept images or videos from strangers
• Send pictures or videos of themselves, family members, or the house to strangers
• Give a stranger personal information, like credit cards or login details for an account

Step 3: Tell them what a risky/dangerous relationship looks like

First, give them examples of healthy relationships, like those they may have with family members or friends. Then outline what a dangerous relationship looks like, which involves:

• Being pressured to keep the relationship a secret
• Being pressured to take drugs
• Being pressured to send naked pictures
• Feeling uncomfortable about how the other person is behaving

Remind your child that they can always ask you questions if they think a relationship is dangerous.

Teaching Children How to Identify Scammers Online

Although online scams change over time, they always ask for the same information from you or your child. Teach your child that legitimate businesses don’t call, email, text, or contact you in any way asking for your information.

Typical information that scammers ask for include:

• Credit card information
• Bank account information
• Identity information, like social security numbers
• Login and password information for an account

Tell your child that people who ask for this information are always scammers; the best thing they can do is tell an adult and not talk to the scammer. Find some examples of phishing scams online so they can learn more about how fraud works.

Most importantly, let them know that sometimes, these scams promise free items like toys, games, or large amounts of money.

Remind them again that if someone asks for the sensitive information listed above, they are scammers, which means they are lying. Liars don’t do what they say, so your child shouldn’t worry about missing out on free stuff.

Teaching Children to Avoid Computer Viruses

If your child is old enough to use a computer unsupervised, they are old enough to understand a computer virus.

Explain that computer viruses are similar to regular viruses, like the flu or the cold. But unlike people, computers can catch viruses from unsafe websites and downloadable files.

Once a computer is “sick,” the virus can damage it. Viruses can also steal information from the computer, like login and password information. Viruses then pass that information on to bad people, who can steal those accounts.

A common way to catch computer viruses is by clicking on pop-up ads on websites, even trusted websites. Computers can also get a virus when you download files from untrustworthy sites.

Your child can practice the following:

• Never click on a pop-up or on-page ad, even if it’s of something they like
• Only download from legitimate websites like Google Play or the official website of the thing they are interested in
• Don’t click on links they receive from people they don’t trust. These might be in emails, social media messages, or any other platform they use

In addition to practicing internet safety, ensure that your antivirus is fully updated and that you use a trusted online security provider.

Talking to Children About Adult Content

At some point, all children become curious about sex. They might see it on TV, hear about it at school from their friends, or learn about it from an older sibling.

A child’s curiosity can drive them to search for sexual content online when they aren’t emotionally equipped to understand it. In some cases, what they witness can be traumatizing, depending on the nature of the content. In other cases, it can distort their ideas about sexual relationships and interfere with their emotional growth.

Parents should teach children about the differences between pornography and healthy, consensual sexual relationships rather than rely on school sex education. Even if your computer has a parental lock on adult content, children might be able to access it elsewhere.

Children Under 10 Years Old

Children under ten won’t need an explanation about pornography if they have not been directly exposed to adult content. A brief conversation might be valid if they ask about it, though.

You can still talk to them about the following:

• Healthy non-sexual ways of showing affection to people you love
• What sex is, with age-appropriate materials of anatomy
• Consent, personal boundaries, and respecting other people
• Puberty and the period when sexual feelings begin

Children Over 10 Years Old

For children over ten years old, try to teach them that:

• Pornography does not show how sex in real life works. It uses actors and can sometimes portray unhealthy/dangerous situations that hurt people in real life when copied
• They must always obtain explicit consent from their partner before sex can take place. Anybody can change their mind about consent and take it back at any point
• Sex is about two people mutually coming together to show affection, not one person coercing the other
• Safe sex is not just about using contraceptives. Safe sex means creating an emotionally safe environment where two people can trust each other to respect personal boundaries
• Manipulating someone for sex, blackmailing for sex, or going outside someone’s boundaries without consent are examples of sexual assault

While you want to cover these points, let your child direct the conversation into areas that they want to talk about by asking them open-ended questions. Let them know that masturbation, sexual feelings, and watching porn (when they are old enough) are all healthy activities.

You want them to understand that porn is not realistic or educational and can give people unhealthy ideas about sex. If they expect genuine relationships to look like porn, they could damage their future relationships and hurt themselves and others.

When a Child Under 10 Years Old Is Exposed to Adult Content

Unfortunately, there are instances when very young children witness pornographic material. Depending on the nature of the adult content, they may have some questions, or they might not think anything of it. If the content is excessively graphic, it can be traumatizing.

Children can struggle to tell parents about these experiences and how they feel, so be gentle when starting the conversation. It helps if you take them to a neutral environment where they feel safe and relaxed, like an uncrowded park. Try the following discussion prompts:

Do you feel comfortable telling me what you saw? Can you tell me?

Be sensitive in initiating this conversation, as they might not be ready to talk. If your child isn’t comfortable, let them know that you’ll check in later, and they can tell you whenever they feel ready.

Do you understand what you saw?

Seeing adult content can bother your child even if they don’t understand it. This question checks their understanding of sex so you can gauge what they know and how to follow up later with additional resources.

Your follow-up should focus on reinforcing a healthy and positive attitude but don’t undermine how the experience made them feel.

How do your emotions feel?

Let them express their feelings to relieve some of the burden. It’s important to empathize with what they say to normalize their experience, whether they feel scared, icky, or curious to learn more.

How does your body feel?

Actively listen and normalize whatever your child’s physical reaction was. If they experienced physical attraction, an introduction or refresher on puberty and sexual development might help them understand their body’s natural reaction.

Do the things you saw keep coming back into your mind?

The human brain’s reflex is to focus on and replay provocative experiences, both good and bad ones. Let your child know they are not bad for thinking about what they saw, and it’s natural to think about new things they see.

Are there any questions you want to ask me?

Allow them to bring up any of the things churning in their mind. They might want to know about your experience with porn, or they might not have anything else to say. Be honest with them in an age-appropriate way.

They might benefit from a short conversation about how porn is not accurate, which is covered in the previous section for children over ten years old.

Would you like to go and do your favorite activity with me?

After they have said everything they want, help them move on with a positive experience to help release any upsetting feelings that can linger.

If their experience continues to distress them, their personality changes, or you want additional advice, reach out to a child psychologist or a trauma counselor.

Teaching Children about Online Bullying and What to Do When it Happens

Finding out your child is being cyberbullied can be emotional and upsetting for any parent. Cyberbullies make other children feel threatened, unsafe, hurt, and even ashamed. Cyberbullying can happen in direct messages online or when a bully posts hurtful or embarrassing content involving your child for others to see.

Children might be so embarrassed that they don’t want to tell you about it. You must create a calm environment and gently bring up the subject if you notice they are upset, refuse to go to school, and appear more withdrawn than usual.

You don’t want to overreact and instantly start retaliating against the bully. A parent stepping in may cause more embarrassment for your child and prevent them from opening up again. Instead, focus on supporting your child by doing the following:

• Reassure your child that you are there for them no matter what.
• Encourage them to put down their device and step away for a break.
• Empathize with how they feel, remind them how great they are, and that you strongly disagree with what the bully is saying to them. It is not okay for anyone to hurt others like this.
• Encourage them to tell their closest friends about what’s happening. Their friends at school and online can stand up for your child more effectively than you can in a social setting.
• If you know the bully’s identity, try contacting their parents.
• If bullying is also happening at school, contact the principal.
• If the bullying continues, build a community of support by talking with your child’s coach, their friend’s parents, and any positive role models in their life.
• If there are any threats of violence or physical harm, contact the police.

You can also develop an action plan for your child whenever they encounter cyberbullying:

Step 1: Sign off the device and walk away from the cyberbullying.

Step 2: Don’t respond or retaliate, no matter how angry you are. Retaliation is what the bully wants.

Step 3: Block the bully on the messaging platform or your phone.

Step 4: Save and print the bully’s messages as evidence so you can show an adult.

Step 5: Talk to a trusted friend and tell them how you feel.

Step 6: Tell an adult you trust to stand up for you.

Teaching Children to Not Bully Others Online

Even mature adults do things that hurt other people, and children are no different. It can be a shock to discover your child is engaging in behavior that hurts others.

What is essential is that you don’t trivialize, ignore, or explain away the behavior. It likely will not stop without intervention from a parent or guardian. If their behavior is not corrected, it can continue until they are adults and negatively affect their personal and professional lives.

Here is what you can do if you find out your child is a cyberbully:

• Understand that your child is not the problem; their behavior is.
• Avoid dramatic outbursts. You must maintain a calm, safe, open line of communication with them.
• Treat them with respect. While your child’s behavior is unacceptable, don’t demonize or judge them for it. Everyone makes mistakes, and this is a mistake they need to correct.
• Start a conversation about what they think of other people, including their targets. Ask them why they feel that way towards them and if anything has happened to cause those feelings.
• Give them examples of acceptable ways to solve problems instead of bullying.
• Stop the bullying immediately. Tell your child this is unacceptable behavior, and no one has the right to hurt others like this, even for revenge. Remind them that they are a good kid, but this part of their behavior is a problem.
• Understand why they bully others. Has something happened in the past that damaged their self-esteem? Is it a behavior they have learned at home or from other role models?
• Investigate the extent of your child’s bullying. How long and how many people have they targeted? Is it just online? Or in person as well? What online platforms are they using?
• Present your child with examples of their bullying in a safe, kind manner to show them the impact of their actions. Help them cultivate empathy toward others.
• Monitor your child’s online behavior, and keep in touch with others in the community to ensure that the behavior doesn’t resurface.

Teaching Children About Screen Addiction and Moderation

How much screen time should children get? At what age should kids start using devices? And why is too much screen time bad for kids?

Screen Time Based on a Child’s Age

According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry:

• Children under 18 months should not have any screen time (apart from supervised video calls with a parent who is away).
• Children between 18-24 months should only view educational programs supervised by a caregiver. 
• Children aged 2-5 years should only receive 1 hour per weekday and a maximum of 3 hours on weekends of non-educational screentime.
• Children aged 6+ should practice healthy screen usage habits and work to avoid a constant reliance on screens. Parents can choose how often their children access devices based on individual schedules and responsibilities.

It can be challenging to stick to the above time allowances. That’s why it’s essential to talk to your child about the side effects of too much screen time. Screen addiction can affect their development, emotional wellbeing, and ability to live a fulfilling life as they mature.

What are the side effects of screen addiction in children?

• Problems sleeping and feeling well rested
• Loneliness and not spending time making friends or bonding with family
• Less time spent practicing social skills
• Reduced physical activity and physical development
• Weight problems
• Problems with mood and emotional regulation
• Low self-esteem and poor body image
• Feeling they are missing out on other accomplishments in life
• Less time learning how to relax, have fun, and deal with daily stress

Signs your child is suffering from a screen addiction

• An inability to control their screen use, or a constant need to be in front of a screen
• Withdrawing from activities they used to enjoy
• Lying about how much screen time they are getting
• Struggling with social situations that do not involve talking about their devices/games

Don’t Make Them Quit Cold Turkey

To start talking to your child about screen addiction, avoid cutting them off from their devices entirely. Forcing them to quit immediately may encourage defiant behaviors and worsen their screen dependency. Children can experience withdrawal symptoms from screens, so parents must prioritize a gentle transition away from devices.

Start a Conversation

Begin with a calm and honest conversation focused on teaching the effects of screen addiction. Show them age-appropriate pictures of the physical side effects and how screen addiction will impact their lives. Let your child compare this information with images and descriptions of physically and emotionally healthy people who look like them. Their health is much more important than sitting in front of a screen.

If they have a personal hero who they want to be like when they grow up, let them know how too much screen time will stop them from achieving those dreams.

Set Boundaries that Work for Everyone

This part is up to you, but some examples include no screen time before finishing homework and no screen time between certain hours or on certain days. The problem isn’t that children get screen time but that they often can’t control themselves and receive too much until it impacts their wellbeing.

Explore Other Hobbies

You will find it much easier if you work with your children to find other activities they enjoy. Alternative activities distract them and give them a sense of enjoyment that they thought only devices could provide.

Excellent Life Skills for Children’s Personal Growth and Wellbeing

Here is a comprehensive list of many different life skills for children you can pursue together. Many of these life skills are also great for adults, making them an excellent opportunity for both of you to grow together and become closer.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a skill that, once learned, allows someone to slow down and consciously notice how they feel and what they are doing. Mindfulness for children teaches young kids to take note when they are upset and to calm themselves down before the situation escalates. It also helps them navigate complicated and stressful experiences without becoming overwhelmed and lashing out.

Emotional Regulation

Similar to mindfulness, emotional regulation for children is a learned process that helps children to process and regulate their own emotions.

With emotional regulation, a child learns to identify what emotions they are feeling, the cause or trigger of the emotion, and to find ways of managing how they feel without avoiding the trigger.

Emotional regulation benefits children with anxiety disorders, OCD, ASD, and instances where running away or withdrawing may not be appropriate responses.

Speaking More than One Language

There are so many benefits for children who learn a new language. For starters, learning to speak a new language boosts brain development and memory. Children who learn a new language also gain a better understanding of their first, from grammar to how they speak. Learning a language requires setting long-term goals, persevering, and learning about other cultures, although there are methods to make it easier. And when it’s all done, an additional language opens the door to a new world of employment and travel opportunities later in life.

Meditation and Breathing Techniques

Meditation and breathing techniques for children allow them to bring their attention back to the present moment and away from things they worry about.

Meditation doesn’t just help children focus on the present moment, though, as its calming effects help prepare for bedtime routines. During meditation, children can reflect on their day and identify behaviors in themselves they want to improve tomorrow.

Meditation also includes a range of breathing techniques. These techniques boost the body’s oxygen levels and circulation, improving how a kid’s body feels and, therefore, their wellbeing. 

Breathing techniques also provide an additional boost of energy for kids who are running out of energy before bedtime comes.

Exercise

Whether they play sports, do gymnastics, martial arts, or go running regularly, exercise promotes healthy physical development in kids along with confidence in their physical capabilities.

The body also releases endorphins and feel-good hormones during and after exercise, which helps them cope with depression and stress.

Practicing Empathy

Empathy doesn’t always come naturally; you actually need to teach it in many instances. Empathy helps children build meaningful connections with others, regulate their emotions, and avoid victim mentalities. It can also help prevent bullying.

A child who empathizes is also more likely to help others, a skill that will benefit them throughout life. 

Perseverance

Teaching your child perseverance, or “grit,” means showing them to stick to a goal until they achieve it despite the challenges they may face.

Grit is one of the most valuable life skills, as nothing worthwhile comes easy. Simply put, it doesn’t matter how smart someone is if they don’t work for their goals.

Self-Discipline

Self-discipline in children builds off of the above life skills covered so far. Teaching self-discipline to children means showing them how to see past short-term wants while staying focused on the bigger picture or goal. 

Self-disciplined children can make better decisions when in a negative frame of mind, can communicate more effectively during uncomfortable scenarios, and are better at controlling impulsive behaviors.

Being Kind to Yourself

A child cannot become their best self if they constantly put themselves down. Children need to learn to be kind to themselves because they will make mistakes as they grow.

Forgiving themselves for not performing perfectly and letting go of past mistakes will help prevent performance anxiety when faced with a big task. It will also help motivate them because they won’t be held back by fear while learning to love themselves for everything they are instead of what they aren’t.

The Importance of How We Talk to Each Other and Ourselves

The way we speak to others impacts how they see themselves. Similarly, how people speak to us influences our own self-perception. What many people forget, though, is that the way we talk to ourselves is just as important.

Teaching your child about the power of language means encouraging them to use empathy to think about how their words make other people feel. When applying this approach to self-talk, children can learn a set of self-affirmations that help improve their self-belief, self-confidence, and self-love.

This empowering tool boosts self-esteem, confidence, and protects your child from intrusive thoughts when something upsetting happens.

Making Healthy Food Without Supervision

The sooner children can make healthy decisions about their diet, the less likely they are to fall into unhealthy eating habits.

Teaching your child how to make their own food empowers them with a skill where they can find what they like and dislike. Most of all, it teaches them that they can rely on themselves. Keep this lesson age-appropriate, as young children should not use sharp or hot utensils.

Doing Chores Around the House

Chores can seem annoying, but they can become a source of pride, accomplishment, and responsibility when introduced to your child correctly.

This is an opportunity for kids to learn and care about their personal hygiene and general tidiness while participating in a team activity with the entire family. Start with age-appropriate tasks that they can realistically finish without feeling overwhelmed, and ensure they know they’ve done a great job at the end.

Gardening for Kids

Getting out into the garden comes with a myriad of benefits for children, teaching them about healthy food options and basic STEM topics like biology.

Experiencing the garden first-hand also exposes kids to a wide range of sensory experiences, which boosts brain development. With gardening, children get gentle exercise, a space to nurture that they can call their own, and a set of goals to get them excited and thinking about the future.

As a life skill, gardening can put food on the table while providing valuable stress relief and enjoyment to help kids become happy, calm, and centered.

Reading Maps and Navigating

Young children quickly pick up a sense of direction once they learn to identify North, South, East, and West relating to the sunrise and sunset. A keen sense of direction can also make them feel safer and more confident because, with practice, they can determine which direction home is.

They will also be able to navigate cities and landscapes more confidently. Once they have their bearings, start playing orienteering games like a treasure hunt or navigating on a camping trip.

Teaching Children How to Create Art

On the surface, teaching your child how to make art is a lot of fun, where they get to make a mess with paint, clay, glue, or whatever is available. Art, self-expression, and creativity are essential for a child’s cognitive development.

Art activates all of the senses (multisensory stimulation), promoting neural development in the brain. Through art, kids improve their fine motor skills and coordination while working on their social-emotional skills, which are essential for self-expression and understanding others.