Use of Positive Affirmations with Children
In a world where children are living in unpredictable environments (thank you, COVID-19!) and ever-growing use of technology and social media, it’s important for parents and caregivers to love, strengthen, and encourage their children, especially during difficult or challenging tasks. What’s also important is that parents and caregivers also teach their children how to create these same positive emotions for themselves. This can be done with the use of positive affirmations!
What are positive affirmations?
Positive affirmations are positive phrases or statements that can be said to oneself when experiencing unhelpful, negative, or self-conscious thoughts. While this may sound easy to implement daily, unconsciously, many adults and children tend to demonstrate negative affirmations instead. For example, when an individual is met with a difficult situation or task, their immediate thought process may be “This is too hard, I can’t do this” or “I don’t want to do this.” When individuals demonstrate these thought processes, both internally and externally, these affirmations become deeply rooted inside themselves. Consequences of these negative affirmations may include decreased self-esteem or self-worth and decreased willingness to try new things. This may impact one’s ability to learn and participate in daily activities, like school, playing with friends, and socializing with loved ones. However, with the use of positive affirmations, children and adults alike can rewire and retrain their brains and develop more positive and confident mindsets!
How can parents and caregivers teach positive affirmations?
Keep it simple! When introducing positive affirmations, explain to children what they are, how they work, and why it’s important to have positivity and optimism in their daily lives. There are many fun and entertaining ways to teach positive affirmations, such as posters, coloring books, and/or positive affirmation cards, all of which are widely available online for purchase or available for DIY project creation.
Examples of positive affirmations
- I can do hard things
- I believe in myself
- It’s okay to make mistakes
- I can do anything that I set my mind to
- If I fall, I will get right back up again
- I am good at a lot of things
Daily use of positive affirmations, with both children and adults, have been found to greatly impact self-esteem, self-worth, willingness to try new or difficult activities, and ability to participate in daily activities, such as school, play, and spending time with loved ones. Parents can help to support the use of daily positive affirmations by explaining the use and benefits, role modeling these positive verbal statements, and incorporating them into daily life with posters, cards, etc.