Confidence Building For Your Child

Reading and spelling problems are the most prevalent issues that dyslexics face, but many forget the possible shame that is packaged with the disorder. It is natural for children to compare themselves to their peers and unfortunately this can have some damaging effects.

Having difficulty with an everyday task like reading can be frustrating and confusing, and easily effect your child’s confidence. The key to their success is to tell them that they should not feel ashamed. Here are some tips that will help you navigate creating confidence in a realistic way.

Help them identify their strengths and weaknesses:

Have your child write down what they think their strengths and weaknesses are and what they like about themselves. More than likely, their list will have more strengths than weaknesses. You can write down your own list of strengths you in your child and share them at the end. Remind your child that their strengths outweigh their weaknesses and that their list doesn’t only have to include academic tasks.

Create a toolkit:

Have your child create a little bag of trinkets, notes or tools that make them feel comfortable away from home. When they get frustrated at school, they can pull out the bag and look at or use an item to center them back on the task at hand. You can include hand-written encouragement notes, any tools used exclusively at home or something as simple as a stress ball.

Change the way success is defined in your home:

Grades are important, but emotional wellbeing is more important. When your child is in a slump, they won’t feel motivated to complete their homework after a long day at school. Try taking your child somewhere after school to chat about the day to let them voice their frustrations. Create a plan of attack for school work in the next week with them, not for them. This will give your child a clear plan of what their goals are and teach them the skills to do this for themselves as they get older.

Assign emotional homework:

By assigning emotional homework, you show your child you care deeply about their emotional well-being as well as their grades. It allows them to fly through “emotional” tasks with ease so that they have the confidence to continue on their academic homework. Emotional homework can include anything from journaling, drawing, 30 minutes of physical activity, or even sharing a snack talking about their day. These tasks should be on the same list as the academic tasks so that they can feel good about completing them.

Boosting your child’s confidence at home will help them succeed during their literacy therapy. For more information on our scientific backed therapy click here.