Know Your Child Better: 6 Ways To Nurture Your Child’s Uniqueness

By Robert Myers

Every child born is a unique individual. Though they may have a few or many similarities with their parents, siblings, and other relatives, they also have their own unique traits from the get go and continue to differentiate even more as they grow and develop.

From birth, parents continue to discover more and more about their child’s talents, likes and dislikes, sense of humor, creativity, curiosity, dreams, fears, desires, and unique personality.

Here are some recommendations for how parents can continue to get to know their children and provide encouragement to enable them to grow and develop into happy, successful adults.

1. Discover.

Take time each day to observe your child up close and from afar. Look for changes. Look for new skills. Experience your child as a person by interacting with them.

2. Listen and Ask Questions.
Discovery includes truly listening to your child. It means inquiring about how they think and feel about events in their life. The more you can listen with openness and acceptance, they more you will discover and at the same time affirm your child as a unique individual. Questions should be asked for the purpose of learning more. Find out what lead them to those feelings and thoughts, and how long they’ve held those thoughts or feelings. This is the time to show interest and understanding, provide support, and volunteer guidance but only if requested or when it raises serious concerns.

3. Observe and Comment.
This is the fun part of parenting – watching your child be a kid. Where they’re playing a game, drawing, playing music, performing, learning a new skill, showing off a physical feat or attempting comedy, all you have to do is watch, enjoy, and celebrate with a smile, applause, and a pat on the back. Provide praise and encouragement. Avoid being a critic – that’s the job of teachers and coaches, and your children will surely get criticism from peers as well.

4. Engage In Child-Directed Play.
Playing is good for people of all ages. It reduces stress, promotes health, and is just plain fun. When playing with younger kids as well as older children and teens, let them direct the play. Join in and have fun. Let toddlers and preschoolers make up the rules for games if they want. Get in touch with your inner child and enjoy along with them.

5. Expose Your Child To Many Different Activities.
Children should be exposed to all types of opportunities to try new things such as sports, music, art, drama, science, reading, visiting parks, the forest, the beach, museums, hobbies, and anything else you can think of. Encourage them to give it a try. Praise them for trying new things. If they become interested, encourage them and support them in their pursuit. If they feel like giving up after awhile, find out why and encourage them to keep going when things get harder or they become bored or lose interest. At some point we as parents may have to let them quit even when we think they could be successful at the endeavor. Letting them quit without a huge struggle and letting them know the door is always open is the best way to go.

6. Show Patience  and Understanding.
No matter the situation, patience and understanding are always good to maintain. While dealing with children can be frustrating, being patient and showing that you understand how they are feeling helps a lot. Try to model and coach patience along with encouragement in the affirming of their abilities. Talk them through the process step by step and cheer them along the way.

Source: childdevelopmentinfo