如何支持正在发现自我的孩子

2024年5月29日 by 瓦莱丽·柯克

5分钟阅读

A Learning Coach and his student are sitting and having a conversation on a balcony.

Before your child is even born, you start wondering what their personalities will be like. 他们会谨慎还是冒险? 他们会和别人玩得很好吗? 他们会快乐吗??

Those personality traits are part of your child’s identity – the unique things that make them uniquely … them. 从对阅读的热爱到对露营的强烈厌恶, 孩子的个性很早就开始显现了, 孩子们开始变得 2岁左右的自我意识.

Self–awareness is understanding ourselves – knowing and accepting our strengths and weaknesses, 喜欢和不喜欢, 和情感.

But while a two-year-old may start displaying self-awareness by mimicking their facial expressions in a mirror or throwing a bowl of food they hate across the room, their journey to being a confidently self-aware person can take time – and support from their parents, 护理人员, 和老师.

为什么自我意识对孩子很重要?

有自我意识的孩子关注他们的想法和感受倾向于更加自信，善解人意，善于沟通. 他们与朋友和家人的关系很好. They are also strong decision makers and problem solvers and can learn from their mistakes. 他们知道是什么激励着他们去寻找成功.

Integrating self-concept activities for kids and self-discovery for kids into a child’s educational journey can have a positive impact on their overall well-being, 包括他们建立健康关系的能力, 在学校表现良好, 有良好的心理健康.

A mother and daughter learning how to build self-awareness for kids.

如何培养孩子的自我意识和自我接纳

成长是艰难的! In addition to academics, children are navigating all their emotions and new social settings. They often don’t know how to react or respond when confronted with different situations, 这会让他们感到沮丧和愤怒吗.

父母要养得开心, 自己的孩子举止得体, and a big part of that is encouraging self-discovery for kids and helping them explore who they are. 通过探索, 孩子们将更多地了解真实的自己, which can lead to more easily accepting their true self and develop a better understanding of others. 随着接受而来的是信心, 内心的平静, 牢固的关系, 以及整体稳定、快乐的生活.

Here are five self-awareness activities for kids to help them explore their identities.

1. 写日记.

自我发现是个人的旅程. 而父母和照顾者可以引导和支持孩子, 他们必须在了解自己真正是谁方面发挥积极作用. 写日记是一个很好的方法.

在日记中写下自己的想法和感受 can bring clarity about how they are really feeling – and uncover the meaning behind those feelings. Journals are also judgement-free zones; kids don’t have to worry about showing their true selves in a journal, and writing about who they are will lead to acceptance of who they are. When they accept who they are, they can be free to share their true selves with others.

然而，坐下来写作对孩子来说很难. 这里有一些提示让他们开始.

你感激什么?
描述你最快乐的一天或记忆.
你喜欢自己的哪一点?
你敬仰的人是谁? 他们有什么让你钦佩的品质?
你真正擅长的是什么? 你觉得什么是具有挑战性的?

2. 阅读传记和回忆录

Learning other people’s stories can help children and teens build their own story. Biographies and memoirs can showcase how successful people made a difference by using their strengths to overcome challenges. Encourage your children to picture themselves in those same situations and wonder how they would respond.

Parents can help by asking them questions about what they learned from ready about the person's story. Discussions could include asking their child what they admire about the person they just read about, or if they would have done anything differently if they found themselves in similar situations.

3. 检查他们的情绪

It’s easy to get stuck in the rut of just asking someone how their day was – what did they do, 他们学到了什么?, 等. Extend those questions to ask your child how they are feeling at any given moment. These emotion check-ins give students the opportunity to reflect on how they are feeling. 再深入一点来学习为什么他们会有这样的感觉. Putting a name to how they are feeling can help them effectively manage and cope with their emotions, 哪一个是自我意识的关键要素.

4. 玩“Would You Rather”

Children can learn a lot about themselves when asked to choose between two things, such as:

Would you rather spend summer vacation at the beach or at a campground?
你想去看话剧还是去看棒球赛?
你喜欢在户外工作还是坐在电脑前工作?

Asking "would you rather" questions can help kids think through what they truly like to do and where they really want to be.

5. 让他们接触不同的事物

A big part of self-discovery for kids and teens is experiencing new things. The world is a big, beautiful place full of people of different backgrounds. Spend some time taking your kids to different places like museums, 文化庆祝活动, 或者不同的社区活动. 这可能包括走出自己的舒适区, 但共享的经验将带来新的好处. 你的孩子会知道他们真正喜欢做什么. They will also learn how to handle themselves in situations where they feel uncertain or uncomfortable.

A pair hiking as a way to build self-awareness and confidence in online school students.

支持孩子的身份认同

As children become more self-aware, they live their life as their true selves. 为父母, it’s important to remember that their child’s true self may be different than what they had expected. 有些父母可能希望他们的孩子在某项运动中表现出色, 但他们的孩子可能会意识到他们根本不喜欢玩游戏. 有些人可能希望他们的孩子上大学, but their child may rather take a year off after high school to travel the world.

Parents and 护理人员 have so much influence over how their child chooses to accept their true selves, so it’s important to remember that they need to live their best lives, 这可能与他们的父母对他们的想象不同. 爱他们，因为他们是谁. 赞美他们. 鼓励他们找到自己的声音并使用它. 在他们学习和成长的过程中成为他们的捍卫者, even if they take a different path than the one you would have liked them to choose.

Find additional tools and resources to help with all of the pillars of social and emotional learning on the 连接学院正规买球十大平台中心.