Celebrating Me - Self-Praise
Jan 29, 2024“Acknowledge all of your small victories. They will eventually add up to something great.” - Kara Goucher
We can inspire children to be their own cheer leader too!
Although children love to know they have pleased us, an important thing to remember is we can work towards encouraging them from the start to have the confidence to evaluate, give feedback and praise themselves. They can celebrate their own strengths, victories and progress.
Self-assessment and acknowledgment are vital because it is central to independent learning which is what we want to support all children. Remembering what independent is for one child may be totally different for another. Empowering children to trust themselves and their abilities, that with our support they can work towards what they want for themselves.
Many people find it uncomfortable to self-assess and praise because they don’t like the responsibility it puts upon them, and they can find themselves feeling vulnerable in knowing they could have done better. The more a child is given the opportunity and practise of self-evaluation the more empowered and resilient they become in being able to take feedback and learn from it.
For Parents
Actively avoid doing all the evaluating. Your child will become addicted to your opinion rather than trusting themselves. You can do this by deflecting feedback when they show you something they are proud of “I see how excited you are about your blocks/project/painting, you worked really hard on it, I think it looks great, how do you feel about it?” Of course, it’s wonderful to match their enthusiasm and excitement but it’s also great to seize the Teachable Moment to nurture self-assessment and self-acknowledge. So your child can see the strengths and abilities within themselves or the things they need to work on.
For Educators
Ask the children to feedback their own work, and then do peer feedback for each other. The children will learn to be honest with themselves and others and learn effective communication skills to be able to do this, with lots of practise.
Kerry Spina
Kids in Harmony
Wellbeing Educator | Behaviour Support Coach
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