I’m looking for practical strategies to help build my child’s confidence through positive reinforcement. I know praise is important but I want to make sure I’m doing it right and not just saying ‘good job’ all the time. What specific techniques have worked well for other parents? My kid is 8 years old if that matters. Any advice would be really helpful!
One thing that’s worked really well with my kids is praising the effort they put in rather than just the result. Like when my daughter struggled with her math homework, I started saying things like “I saw how hard you worked on those problems” or “You didn’t give up even when it got tricky.”
We also have a little notebook where we write down one thing each kid did well that day. Nothing huge - maybe they helped clear the table or tried a new food. They love looking back at all the entries and seeing their progress over time.
Another approach that’s been helpful is asking them to tell me what they’re proud of. Sometimes they notice things about themselves that I missed completely. It gets them thinking about their own strengths and accomplishments.
Catching them doing something right without them knowing worked well here. Like telling my partner at dinner how one of the kids helped their sibling earlier.
They overhear it and you can see it clicks different than direct praise. Feels more genuine to them I think.