Many children grow up lacking social confidence. The environment they grow up in, the people they interact with and the messages they get from the media often encourage them to see themselves in a poor light and this makes them lack social confidence.
As a parent, you can prevent this from happening, and you can ensure that your child grows up with a solid dose of social confidence, which allows him to comfortably interact with others.
The first thing that you need to ensure is that your child gets lots of social interaction and experience. Make sure that he plays with other children, that he hangs around kids his own age, and that he doesn't spend too much time alone.
This will ensure that your child develops good social skills and interpersonal intelligence, which will make him trust his ability to relate to others, which is a major source of social confidence.
Secondly, make sure that your child receives positive messages and feels good about himself. It's key that your child sees himself as a person who has something valuable to offer and a person who is likeable to others.
Most shy kids and adults are that way because they think they are not likeable and that others find them weird or boring, But that is not true; it's only a limiting belief. And you can prevent your child from developing such a belief by helping him see his qualities and worth as a person.
In addition, it's important to help your child develop realistic expectations regarding social interactions. Children these days get plenty of messages that encourage them to think that they have to be perfect and everybody must like them.
But these are unrealistic, unnecessary and damaging expectations for anyone to have. Talk to your child periodically and teach him that he doesn't have to be perfect and that it's okay if some people don't like him. Help him embrace his natural imperfection as a human being and he will be a lot more confident.
Last but not least, a child will build and maintain social confidence much easier if he knows there is at least one adult that he can trust for support. An adult he can talk to if he gets in a fight with a peer, an adult who will understand him, an adult who will give him solid advice and protect him from harm.
So, be there for your kid, with an open mind and an open heart. Knowing that he can rely on you will make him dare more to take on the challenges of this world, and this will build his confidence in himself, which will effuse in his social life as well.
Apply these ideas by Helene Goldnadel and your child will navigate the social world with poise and panache, and he will have a rewarding social life throughout his entire existence.