As a parent, the number one thing you want to do for your child is to set them up for a successful life. From your child’s earliest moments, your relationship with your child and the choices of activities, care, and education you make for them makes a huge impact on developing the skills that will help your child create a successful and happy life for themselves. While there is no one right answer as to how to help your child develop these skills, there are certain things you can do to help your child develop the internal tools they need to feel positive about their life.
Success is Different for Every Child
The first, and probably biggest, way to help your child develop the skills for a successful life is to acknowledge that success looks different for every child. Children are unique individuals, and the more time you spend getting to know your child and what they like, what they are interested in, and what their skills are, the better you will be able to help them develop the right skills for a successful life.
There is a universal set of social skills that will serve every child well, though. If you can instill these into your child, they will have a leg up on their path to success no matter what that path looks like. Things like empathy, listening skills, respect for others, a sense of sharing, and the ability to develop relationships will serve your child incredibly well in life. Remember, though, that these skills do not develop at the same time or in the same way for all children; developing them begins at their first moments as you coo and smile at them, but learning them is a lifelong process with which you can help at many stages.
Physical and Mental Health
When you ask parents what they want for their children, many will say, I just want them to have a happy, healthy life. This is the most important goal for a parent to have for their child, and one of the best ways to help your kids get there is to promote physical activity in your kids.
Screen time is at an all-time high and growing among children. And, while all screen time is not bad, parents should be aware of the balance between the time spent being inactive versus active. Increased physical activity in children is linked to better physical health throughout life but also better mental health and even better academic performance. Getting kids outside, moving, engaged in sports or other physical activities, and off the couch is a great way to set the start for a healthy, happy life for kids.
Reading
Reading is fundamental for everything we do in life. Kids who have solid literacy skills perform better in school and have lower amounts of frustration in school. And reading is important not only for simply academic subjects related to reading, but is pivotally important in STEM subjects as well and in life satisfaction over time. Encouraging a love of reading in your child aids them for the rest of their lives and helps their children as well.
You can start very early in reading to your child. Scooping them up before naptime or bedtime when they are still infants and reading text from picture books aids in their discernment of sounds, and slowly they learn that text has meaning. The more you read to your children aloud when they are young, the more likely they are to develop into readers later in life. Once they learn to read themselves, modeling behavior by reading yourself and carving out dedicated reading time is important as well.
Creativity
Creativity is another skill that serves children very well throughout their lives. This includes activities related to art and music and also things like creative thinking and creative problem-solving. Supporting your child’s creativity will set them up for success in almost any avenue they choose.
There are many ways you can support your child’s creativity. You can do this by encouraging creative, free play rather than emphasizing structured activities; by giving them a space where they can be creative and let their imaginations roam; and by focusing on and praising creativity and originality whenever you see it in your child. When you study very happy people who are satisfied with their lives, you find that most are creative in some way. They may not necessarily be drawing pictures or playing the piano, but somewhere along the way they learned to be creative thinkers and that served them very well in their life.
Grit
One of the more recent findings of people who study success is that most successful people have a high level of what is now called grit. Angela Duckworth, a leading psychologist who studies grit defines it as, perseverance and passion for long-term goals. The factors that make up grit include things like follow-through, resilience, and conscientiousness. These things allow successful people to stay the course in pursuit of success.
In the pursuit of helping your child develop grit, parents need to do some of the hardest things in the world for a parent to do. They need to allow their children to fail. They need to allow their children to experience hurt and disappointment and embarrassment. This can be so difficult for parents who love their children and whose natural inclination is to prevent hurt, but it is necessary for children to develop resilience and perseverance. The important part is that parents are there for their kids after this happens to encourage them to get back up, keep on going, and develop the will and mental bravery to pursue their goal in the face of difficult obstacles.
Conclusion
One of the toughest parts about being a parent is that you can do everything right and your child can still face challenges that you never want to see them face in life. The good news is, your child’s development at a young age is critical in setting them up for success later in life and your decisions and actions can have a huge effect. That is why developing the skills above as well as others such as discipline, patience, problem-solving, and more is so valuable. Doing this at home and giving your child the opportunity to develop these skills with their peers in an early childhood education setting can provide your child with lasting benefits.
Author Bio
Sandra Chiu works as Director at Lady Bug and Friends Daycare.
I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
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