Helping a Child Work on His Strengths
Many parents are worried that their children do not indulge in socializing or reading, but they need to understand that their children’s strengths might lie somewhere else. Every child cannot be a scholar; there will be children who will be good at performing arts, fine arts or even sports. The sooner the parents understand and accept this, the easier it will be for them to accept their child. Studies have proved that using your strengths in daily life will make your life more peaceful and happy.
Each one of us is born with special talents and strengths. Your own set of strengths could be different from that of your partner’s or siblings’. Similarly, your child has his own strengths. We always work on our child’s weaknesses rather than his strengths. If we start nurturing his talents and strengths during his formative years we will bring up a contented child. Here’s how.
Traditionally, parents tend to focus more on the weaknesses of their children. Some go a step further and taunt them for their ‘ineptness’ and embarrass them in front of their friends and other people. Not scoring well at school does not guarantee failure in life and vice- versa. Even when we look at our own family, we see that our brothers and sisters are probably good at different things and that has not made them any less successful in life. As parents, we need to recognise our child’s strengths as early as possible and try to make the best out of those strengths.
How To Discover your Child’s Strengths
1. Use play methods
Try and play different games with your child, so that you see where his interest lies and in some cases if your child is not interested in playing, do not force him into it.
2. Find out cues
Let your child reach for all the stuff he wants to play, find out his interests with the cues you get.
3. Make notes
Make notes of what your child likes and what he doesn’t like, it will help your family when you are not around.
4. Listen to your child
Make it a regular habit to listen to your child, chances are he will talk to you about his interests on his own.
5. Do not compare siblings
Comparing siblings leads to lower self-esteem in the child, so never compare. Instead, help both your children find out their own strengths and work together as a team.
6. Discover hobbies and strengths
Create a distinction between hobbies and strengths and help them with both. Let them spend time on both.
How To Find out Strengths in a Group
Collect up to 10 children and ask them about their strengths. This will not only help the children understand like-minded children, but will also help them see that different people have different strengths. This lets every child value everyone else’s strengths, so they can now work together as a team and succeed.
Working on our child’s strengths does not mean that we ignore his weaknesses and let him have his way throughout the day. Education is an important part of his life and we cannot neglect that. We need to balance academics and extra-curricular activities so that he excels in his life as a whole.
