Why is Confidence Important for Preschoolers?

“Parents need to fill a child’s bucket of self-esteem so high that the rest of the world can’t poke enough holes to drain it dry” – Alvin Price

As the quote suggests, parents have a huge responsibility to nurture a child’s confidence to get them armoured and ready to face the world from a very young age. In fact, it all starts right from the time when they are ready to go to school and are exposed to people and personalities from all walks of life.

Why is Confidence Important?

• Empowers preschoolers to socialize and make friends easily.

• Children who are not confident are usually socially awkward.

• Breaks their fear to open up and voice out their feelings.

It is, therefore, essential that this social awkwardness is nipped in the bud. It is always good to identify this when children are young, so that they can be groomed to come out of it at an earlier age.

Thus, a proper path has to be constructed to boost their confidence – a path that amplifies the preschooler’s strengths and elevates their self-image. A strategy that encompasses these will surely motivate preschoolers to succeed in school and resist peer pressure in future.

How to Boost a Child’s Confidence?

An uphill task for most parents is not being equipped with the “know hows” to raise a confident preschooler.

Here are some ways parents can help boost their child’s confidence.

• Parents can expose their child to learn new things. For example, a visit to the museum or to a place where confidence is needed to step out of the comfort zone to experience something new.
• Scaffolding their learning by assisting them with questions. For example, “What animal is that swimming in the aquarium?” followed by praise.
• Expanding their learning through research.

• Praising your child to boost their morale whenever they accomplish a task. For example, instead of “This drawing is good!” say “Wow! You did an amazing job at drawing this picture! Well done!”

  Instead of praising the output, it is always good to acknowledge the child’s effort first.

  That’s the best kind of confidence boost a child can have. Children at that age are perceptive. Hence, it is easier to mould them to be a better version of themselves by recognising their input.

But too much praise and attention can create unnecessary pressure for a preschooler to perform. This can put a child in a position for constant need of approval from others.

It is, therefore, better instead to give preschoolers the message that the effort and completing the task to the end is what matters most.

It is only natural that parents want to instil confidence in their kids and provide a platform for them to excel beyond academics. Confident children believe in themselves and are able to face new challenges without fear. So, it is our responsibility that every child is provided that opportunity!

How Can LoveKids Help?

Speech and drama and public speaking skills are incorporated into our preschool programme. Lessons in our classes revolve around EQ and confidence building.

Children gain confidence through our classes and are then able to portray this confidence in the real world!

So, let’s not allow the world to poke holes and drain our preschoolers’ confidence dry!