15 Ways to Increase Your Child's Self-Esteem

Here are fifteen tips for parents and teachers. What's crafty about self-esteem, you ask? Well, plenty, but in this case the "crafty" is that I've put the tips in a handy PDF that you can download and provide to your students' families. I like to copy stuff like this onto the backs of my parent newsletters.

• Foster their independence. Self-esteem does not come from constant praise. It comes from mastery of life skills.
• Celebrate their real successes (as opposed to praising for behaviors that have been mastered for months).
• Avoid overprotecting. Allow your child to experience losses, challenges, and failures so that real successes don’t feel hollow.
• Teach empathy, generosity, and gratitude.
• Show respect for teachers and education, and your child will do the same.
• Have high expectations. What you expect is often what you will get.
• Be firm. Children need limits to feel secure.
• Don’t compare them to other children, especially not their siblings.
• Listen. And when you speak, choose your words with care, because your child is listening too.
• Teach respect by giving it. Earn respect the same way.
• Teach decision-making.
• Provide them with ample social experiences and solitary private time.
• Give them chores. Age-appropriate tasks help a person feel like an important member of the family.
• Express love. A child needs to know that they are loved unconditionally.
• Work on your own self-esteem, too. You are your child’s most important role model.