Focus On Your Child’s Strengths! – An Article By Alvira Diwan

Focus On Your Child’s Strengths Not Weaknesses – Written By Alvira Diwan

Children are unique in terms of personality and nature, so it wouldn’t be wrong to say that they have the most original way of presenting themselves. They don’t care about being socially approved. All that matters to them is their sense of happiness.

There might be quite a few things that your child may be good at similarly there would be some things your child might be weak in.

Parents often have the tendency of neglecting the things their child is good in, and focusing on the things they’re not. This is a normal outlook of most parents with their explanation being “we want our child to excel in everything he/she does”. This kind of attitude is very disappointing because as human beings we need to understand that attaining perfection is next to impossible. So expecting this from a small child would be having unrealistic expectations.

Instead of looking for the things your child is weak at, focus on things that he or she is good in, and make it his/her strength.

Mastering a particular skill and many more with time would give him/her the confidence to try and excel the tasks he/she couldn’t achieve back then. For example, If your child is talkative or loves talking, you can prepare him for public speaking. Remember children enjoy doing what they do best!

There are several ways of finding out the strengths of your child –

1. Talk to them – Ask them about their likes and dislikes indirectly.
2. Observe their interests – Pay attention to their keenness & things that take most of their time.
3. Acknowledge anything that they’re good at, even if it is anything small.
4. Listen to them – Listen carefully to everything that they have to share, you might discover things that can be of interest.
5. Question them – Questioning them would open their mind to reason out things more.

Discover your child’s strengths and build a confident self, for them to overcome their weaknesses!

 

Alvira Diwan
Masters in Clinical Psychology
PsychWorks Clinic

 

If you have any concerns or questions as parents, leave your comments below & Alvira Diwan will get back to you!