Helping Your Child Reach Their Full Potential: 4 Ways to Achieve It
- Written by Lilly Miller
When a child is born, there’s no telling what they might become one day. The possibilities are truly limitless. However, that doesn’t stop you from wondering about their future or even having certain expectations. While you shouldn’t allow your child to be burdened by what you expect from them, there’s nothing wrong with wanting them to reach their full potential. Yes, they should be guided by their own talents, desires and tendencies, but you should always be there to help them and provide that little push and good learning environment they need in order to become everything they can be. Here are some things you can do to help your child grow up into a happy and fulfilled person one day.
Let Them Play
When your child builds sand castles, jumps into every puddle they see or engages in pretend play with their little friends, they’re not merely running around. They’re also learning about themselves and the world. Play is important in any child’s development, as it helps them grow emotionally, personally and socially. It helps them gain new skills and find out all they need regarding the things they’re curious about. So, don’t hold them back when they want to play. Provide them with the right kind of toys (and perhaps even a Onewheel electric skateboard if they are a bit older), give them enough space and time and let them socialize with other children their age whenever that’s possible. Australia is a multicultural country, so allow your child to experience that, too. Let them play with children from different backgrounds and allow them to form their own opinions through new situations and contact with other people and children. And be patient. Don’t stand in the way of their play just because you don’t want them to get dirty or because you’re in a rush. Let them roll down that grassy hill, dance in the rain or shape mud. In time, the benefits of such play will outweigh any dirt they might pick up along the way, so just let them play.
Consider Early Education
If you want your child to grow up into a functional adult, with healthy relationships and a job they’ll love, you should start thinking about their academic potential and how to motivate them properly into becoming the best versions of themselves. It’s for this reason that you should do some research and find the early-education methods you agree with, the ones that have shown the best results in all fields of child development and the ones other parents gladly recommend. You’ll want to find methods that nurture your child’s individuality and you’ll want to send your child somewhere they’ll be respected and where their creativity and intelligence will be appreciated and nourished. If your kid wants to become a professional golfer someday, a golf lesson with a pro should go a long way. Australian parents tend to put their trust into places that provide precisely that kind of early education. One of the examples of good practice would be Reggio Academy. They stand out as they choose only high-qualified educators, use the most successful and highly acclaimed learning methods and invest in any resources necessary for your child to receive holistic education from the start, which is what any parent can want.
Give Them Control
When you teach your child responsibility from their early age, it’s more probable they’ll develop all the necessary organizational skills they need to become more competent and have higher self-esteem down the road. After all, although Australians are often family-centered, most of them expect their children to be independent enough by their mid-twenties to live alone and take care of all of their finances on their own. So, listen to you child, respect them as much as you want them to respect you, allow them the same rights you have and encourage them to have their own opinions and ideas. Instead of giving them orders without explanations, try to negotiate things with them, so that they can make their own decisions and come to different conclusions using their own heads. That way they’ll rely more on themselves and be more responsible. This can be an incentive for them to build the right habits, which is very important for any child or a person, but it can also inspire them to set their own goals and search for the most efficient ways to achieve those goals, reaching their full potential by doing so.
Give Them Praise
It’s important that your child feels loved and appreciated and that their successes are recognized. That way, your child will learn to highlight their own accomplishments, which is something that’s important for Australians. While other cultures teach their children to be humble, Australians are more likely to thrive on compliments and own their success. This is something you should instill in your child, but not too aggressively. It basically comes down to you showing your child you’re proud of them whenever the possibility arises. They don’t even have to be insanely successful at something. In fact, you should always praise them for their efforts, as the goal isn’t for them to be better than everybody else all the time, but rather to do the best they can in any situation. Even when they feel they’ve failed at something, tell them you’re happy they tried and that occasional mistakes don’t mean that they aren’t successful. Tell them that they can learn from every mistake they make and that they shouldn’t quit just because they come across a bump in the road from time to time.
There is plenty of potential in any child, including yours, so make it your job to give them the guidance they need, so that they know that they can do or become whatever they want. You should always be the wind at their back, providing them with the love and support they need to become exactly the amazing people you know that they are.
