Your Child’s Self Esteem Matters: 8 Confidence Builders for Kids with ADHD
Everyone learns differently — especially children with ADHD. Helping your child find out where she excels can give her self-confidence and a positive outlook on the future. Her self esteem will improve, and that will change everything.
How Can I Improve My Child’s Self Esteem?
Children with ADHD and learning disabilities are just as smart as their friends and classmates — but they rarely feel that way because they learn and think differently. Their answers are sometimes unexpected. Their observations are not always appreciated. And their areas of excellence are not always graded.
The trick to boosting a child’s self esteem is finding the areas in which he or she excels, and then finding activities that play to those strengths. Self confidence almost always follows. And when a child feels confident, he does better at school and in life.
[Click to Read: Why Praise Is So Important for Children with ADHD]
Use “Multiple Intelligences” as your guide; log on to literacynet.org to have your child take a quiz. Use the results to explore activities. If he is…
MUSIC SMART
Taking music lessons, singing in a choir, joining a marching band, or playing in a neighborhood band. Local music shops often give lessons and host fun events.
PEOPLE SMART
Volunteering, peer-counseling training, school improvement/student leadership groups, or babysitting.
SELF SMART
Writing workshops, poetry groups, Bible studies, drama classes, starting a small business.
WORD SMART
Learning a foreign language, joining a debate club (or debating at home) or a book and/or writers’ club.
LOGIC SMART
Classes, clubs, or competitions in robotics, computer programming, chess, and/or student business/marketing associations.
NATURE SMART
Joining a conservation group, a hiking club, or volunteering at your local animal shelter.
PICTURE SMART
Joining an art club, taking photography or painting lessons, making a film and posting it to YouTube (with your permission).
BODY SMART
Playing organized sports/games, taking fitness, nutrition, or cooking classes.
