Building Self-Esteem in Children

Summary

Students will understand parenting styles, including positive guidance techniques that help children develop positive self-concepts, self-management, and responsibility.

Materials

• Building Confidence Article
• Fostering Self-Esteem Teacher Information
• Fostering Self-Esteem PowerPoint
• Parent Interviews
• Self-Esteem Scenarios
• Vocabulary Worksheet and Key

Instructional Procedures

Vocabulary
Use the Vocabulary Worksheet and Key (pdf).

Introduction/Pre-Assessment
Snowball game. Have each student write on a piece of paper one way that a parent can build their child's self-esteem. Have them crumble it up into a ball and toss it somewhere in the room. Each student will collect a "snowball" to read to the class. Discuss the importance of parents in building self- esteem in their children.

Content Outline, Activities and Teaching Strategies
(All options do not necessarily need to be taught. Select ones to cover standards and objectives and according to your district policies.

Option 1: Class Discussion
Discuss with the students how to build self-esteem in children. Refer to Self-Esteem Teacher Information (pdf) and Self-Esteem PowerPoint.

Option 2: Building Self-Esteem Activity
Promote a class discussion by cutting the various Scenarios (pdf) on the dotted lines and distributing them throughout the class. As you call the number, the student reads the situation, and then explains what he/she would do. The rest of the class may then contribute their ideas.

Option 3: Article
Read the article from the Deseret News Building Confidence (pdf) by Carma Wadley. Have students write a reflection paper on what they learned from the article. Discuss the inserts in this article that come from Dr. Jenn Berman.

Option 4: Assignment
Using the Parent Interview form (pdf) have students interview 3 sets of parents of various age children. Ask: How can parents build self-esteem in their children? What kinds of things have they found to be effective? What is their opinion of the importance of parents building self-esteem in children? They are to write up their findings in a paper to be turned in. (Length of paper to be determined by teacher.) They should be prepared to share one idea with the class.

Summary/Evaluation
Self-esteem is an important part of the development of children. It affects their attitude and influences how successful they are in life. If they believe in themselves and their abilities they are able to do anything they put their minds to. You can't just hope that your child will have good self-esteem. It is something that the parent (the most important person in that child's life and the one that they most trust) must committed to building. This is done by doing things daily that nurture that child's self- esteem. It doesn't have to be some monumental project, just noticing the positive things that they do. Nurturing self-esteem is one of the most important things that a parent can to do help a child become successful.