Understanding your kid is certainly one of the integral things you should master as a parent. It plays an integral role in nurturing and guiding your kid in a perfect manner as they become mature and grow. You should keep in mind that your child has a specific personality trait that does not change throughout life.
One of the effective techniques for understanding your child is observing them as they eat, sleep or play. You should try to look for constant traits. Understand which activity they like doing the best. Can they adapt to the environment in an easy manner or does it take more time to become familiar with stuff? They are recognized to be the normal characteristics of a child.
It is a prerequisite that you should take out more time for talking to your children. This is integral to gathering information from them and understanding them. In the case of young kids, it requires more facial expression, body, and verbal language for have the right understanding of their feelings and thoughts. Asking the right questions will let them share their problems and feelings with you.
Self-esteem contributes to being one of the major keys to becoming successful in life. The development of a healthy self-esteem or positive self-concept in indispensable for the success and happiness of teenagers and children. A positive and healthy relationship with parents impart the right support and framework to your child for the development of healthy regard and respect for self and others. Children crave to spend time with their parents as it confers a special feeling to them. Hence, it is imperative that parents should be encouraged to spend time with their kids and play with them on a regular basis. If you have only one child or are a single parent, it is recommended to invite friends and family to play occasionally.
There may be different reasons owing to which children fail to develop social skills in an easy manner in comparison to others. Nothing can be more painful for a parent more than a rejection of his child. It takes a longer view of social problems and mapping out a problem for solving in a careful and thoughtful manner.
If you are looking for ways to interacting with your child for the creation of a stronger relationship, here are few effective strategies:
Confer Labeled Praise
Studies revealed if u confer more attention to one specific behavior, there will be a repetition of that particular behavior. If you pay more attention to one undesired behavior, you are sure to get more of it. In a similar manner, praise of desired behavior enhances that behavior. Parents should not praise indiscriminately. In lieu, parents should bestow feedback on good actions of the child.
Ignore Minor mistakes
If a misbehavior is not that major and not dangerous, parents should ignore it. Thus, you should ignore when a child throws food on the floor or act similarly. As you confer attention or expression feelings nicely, it helps the teacher to understand that good behavior is necessary for seeking attention.
Become a student for the development of child
Understanding the milestones for development can assist a person in attending and praising steps towards the particular milestone. Understanding that a four-year-old kid is more willing to please friends will help you to understand the importance of praising the positive behavior with friends. At the same time, the understanding that kids of teenage are more concerned about their clothes, looks, and body images help you to ignore the additional time she/he spent looking at the mirror.
Accomplish time-outs along with quality time in
Studies reveal that brief and immediate time-outs work in the best way, especially when paired with parents who praise positive behavior and model good ones. Though it is a real challenge at the moment of misbehavior, it is essential to keep calm. Praising of compliances can make time-out highly effective.
Concentrate on the prevention of misbehavior
Studies report that as you pay attention when a child is hungry or get tired can assist in the prevention of larger part of the meltdown. You should plan ahead and anticipate potential issues. It is important to teach your kid techniques for coping with problems. This may eliminate the requirement for using time-outs.
Take accomplished care of yourself in the first place
In accordance with an APA study in the year of 2010, children are affected in a negative manner owing to parental stress. Studies show that 86 percent kids were found to be bothered due to parental stress. It seems almost impossible when you are busy with work, parenting, and life. Hence, it is imperative to maintain hobbies, exercise and connect with partners and friends.
Spend time with your parents
It is recommended that you should spend quality time with your child without doing anything, Just be with them, take interest in them and express feelings and positive thoughts with them. You should be avoiding inquiring, teaching, offering or correcting alternative perspectives.
Current psychology studies
Below are results of ten updated psychology studies which is important for every parent to know:
Non-parents are not as happy as parents
In recent studies, it is revealed that pain outweighs the pleasure of having children. Parents feel better than non-parents and procure more pleasure while caring for their children in comparison to other activities. Father, especially, obtain a higher level of energy, happiness and positive emotion from their children.
Making your kid a priority is worth it
Child-centric approaches are considered to be beneficial, Parents who were highly child-centric were happier and found a greater meaning in life after having children. Child care activities were interlinked with reduced negative feelings and greater meaning. Studies suggest that if people confer more attention and care to others, they experience more meaning and happiness. From this point of view, the more parents will invest in the well-being of children, more meaning and happiness they will procure from parenting.
Say no to helicopter parenting
With several things, there exists a fine line between smothering and caring especially when children grow up. Studies reveal a correlation between the higher level of depression and helicopter parent among students along with reduced level of competence, relatedness, and autonomy.
Say no to strict discipline
Studies also suggested that strict discipline may destroy the bond between parents and kids. Harsh verbal discipline was found to be worse in the next year. Harsh discipline does not have any consequence. Harsh verbal discipline may seem to be detrimental in different circumstances.
Maintain regular bedtimes
Regular bed timings play an indispensable role in the development of child's brain. Researchers stated that irregular bedtimes for children of 3 years were related to spatial weakness in girls and boys, poor scores in maths and reading. Since the age of 3 is considered to be a sensitive period for cognitive development, regular bed times are recognized to be paramount for girls as well as boys. The right implementation will assist in better cognitive performance.
Do the works together
Bringing up children is easier when the relationship of father and mother is not that rocky. Doing the chores together is considered to be a good trick to achieve marital satisfaction, When parents do their chores at the similar time, both people become more satisfied after the division of work.
Restrict watching of TV for the kids
The American Academy of Pediatrics states that children of two years of age should not watch television more than two hours in a day. They should not watch any before that age. A study states that almost 2000 children in Canada who used to watch television an extra hour at the age of 2.5 years had worse performance as they attended kindergarten.
Exercise aids in boosting the performance of children in school
Exercise is believed to be a perfect way for boosting the power of the brain. Exercise comes with several other benefits as well. A recent study reveals that moderate to vigorous exercise was related with enhanced academic performance in Science, Maths, and English. Students who perform exercise on a regular basis were found to obtain higher scores in exams. Girls have shown amazing performance in science after doing exercise regularly.
Risks of intense mothering
Studies reveal the fact that taking care of children can be more stressful than being at work. Mothers who believed the idea that women make better parents than men were found to be more depressed and less satisfied with life. You should nurture your children but make sure not to sacrifice your own mental peace at the same time.
Siblings are very different
Though 50 percent of genetic code is similar, there are almost no common traits in siblings. Thus, each child has a different relationship with parents, other siblings, etc. Since there occurs a high difference between the traits of siblings, strategies that work with one child may not seem to work with the other.
For being good parents, it is a prerequisite to understanding the psychology of children. This will definitely help in strengthening the bond between children and parents.
