Five Ways to Implement Positive Parenting and Set Your Child Up for Lifelong Emotional Success
If you have a child, you’ve probably heard the term “Positive Parenting” before. The practice has become more and more popular in recent times, encouraging a rearing process rooted in love, kindness, and warmth centered on helping children feel acknowledged.
According to UC Davis, positive parenting is all about guiding children to act the way you’d like them to by encouraging and teaching them, while still sending the message, “You are loved, you are good, you matter.”
As Latinos, you may be hesitant to try positive parenting, but it’s a research-backed approach that will set your child up for success. But beyond good vibes, positive parenting is about creating a nurturing environment for children. Here are five ways you can provide positive parenting using PRIDE skills.
Celebrate achievements and practice positive reinforcement
If you think positive parenting is about allowing your children to do whatever they want without discipline, you’re wrong. In fact, the practice is about creating a nurturing environment that fosters your child’s emotional, social, and intellectual growth.
One way to implement positive parenting is through praise. This is the P in PRIDE. Catch your child being good and celebrate their efforts and achievements. We often only focus on the negative, shift to a more positive approach and watch your child blossom.
Show your child you are listening and acknowledge their ideas
Reflection is the second step in the PRIDE system and it involves listening to your child. When you practice reflection, you repeat your child’s words and elaborate on what they said. Through reflection, you let your child know you’re paying attention and encourage them to communicate openly with you. Ultimately, this method encourages children to talk and create a dialogue with their parents.
Additionally, reflection is a great tool for language development. According to UC Davis, reflection is also a great way to improve children’s speech by subtly correcting grammatical mistakes.
Implement imitation to help your children feel important
Switch things up and help your child see you imitating them for a change. This tells them what they’re doing is important and admirable, therefore others might want to do it too. This is also a great way to help your child develop social skills. After all, imitation is how we create symbiotic social exchanges.
Describe their actions as they do them
Have you ever wanted a narration of your life? Description is a way to improve your child’s self-esteem by showing them you’re paying attention. Another perk of this is that it helps children focus and spend more time on a particular task. Implement this when doing homework, art projects, or eating meals.
Express enjoyment when spending time with your child
While we all want to raise healthy, responsible children, it’s also important to show them that life is best when enjoyed. Add warmth and care to your interactions and express your emotions. Not only will this help your child feel loved, but it’ll encourage them to lean into positivity, express themselves, and have better emotional control.
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