7 Ways To Grow Asertive Attitudes In Children

Illustration of how to grow an assertive attitude in children (Freepic)

YOGYAKARTA An assertive attitude is to train children to listen and communicate actively related to emotional intelligence, confidence, and assertiveness. The assertive ability to communicate includes, being able to express oneself as well as respecting the beliefs and rights of others.

To foster an assertive attitude in children, parents can teach them with the following simple habits.

Listening actively means paying full attention to what is trying to communicate. To train children, give them an example. That is, you need to show your child how to be more assertive.

Feelings are a natural part of humans that need to be recognized and labeled so that they can be controlled. This is what you need to do, namely teaching and introducing emotions that children feel. That way, it helps them increase emotional intelligence and assertiveness.

A small 2019 study shows that caring parenting can improve emotional settings in children. Caring for care is the action to be fully present at the times you spend with your child.

Parents may be one of the sources of reference for the child. For example, when walking in the afternoon to the park, they can enjoy a lot of things. They will also ask a lot of questions. It's better if they actively ask questions instead of telling them. Add a habit of asking children to make them confident in their opinion.

Children learn by imitating. Launching PsychCentral, Tuesday, February 28, modeling behavior is an effective teaching tool for parents. Especially when you teach firmness. Give examples of how you defend yourself. But keep doing it calmly, create boundaries, use the first person's statement, and talk about your thoughts and feelings.

Unstructured playing time and calm family time are important for children. But extracurricular activities also provide children with the opportunity to train firmness. For example, participating in team sports and performing arts are two examples of activities that often require interaction with colleagues.

Sometimes the easiest way to teach certain skills is to target individual behavior. Children will easily understand if specific. How to teach assertive behavior includes, initiate or end conversations, make requests, say 'no', talk about their feelings, stand on their opinions.

A study in 2018 linked parents' resistance to anxiety. The anxiety score can decrease when the warmth and affection of parents increases. This means that parental acceptance has an effect on reducing children's anxiety. This also helps increase children's self-confidence and self-esteem.

That's the seventh way to grow an assertive attitude in children. Exercise can be done in several different ways. Some children may take longer time to learn assertive attitudes. But that's okay, of course, parents need to be consistent in teaching this positive attitude.