The tender childhood age is the best time to sculpt behavior and character. This age is full of immaturity, which is reflected in cognitive fragility and intense observational learning.
In this perspective, the renowned author Jess Lair has quoted: “Children are not things to be molded. But are people to be unfolded.”
This brings a need to identify, realign, and enhance the emotional and behavioral strengths of a child to nurture a mature understanding and sense of wisdom.
To get a holistic understanding of it, here is a comprehensive account of behavioral and emotional strengths, their importance, and ways to strengthen them.
Let’s go through them sequentially.
What are the Emotional and Behavioural Strengths of a Child?
These are the symbolic expressions and attitudes of someone making the best decisions, controlling certain emotions, and using them appropriately.
They help in embracing kindness and making empathetic choices, along with possessing a subtle conception of the right responses and actions.
Out of the multitude of such strengths in a child, let’s go through the prominent qualities and comprehend them.
- Courage: This particular trait helps nurture other strengths. Courage is necessary to develop fortitude that further strengthens the behavioral strength and emotional psyche.
In this perspective, J.R.R Tolkien (English writer) was of the firm view that “It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.” Several studies have concluded that children with courage are more likely to become go-getters in their lives.
- Confidence: The Adlerian theory states that early experiences in one’s life guide how one sees oneself and the world. It also exhibits the importance of childhood experiences in developing confidence. This behavioral attribute in children facilitates learning to take the first step in a process and to believe in themselves.
- Truthfulness: It is a pivotal quality to develop in children. The anecdote of Mahatma Gandhi (an Indian lawyer and eminent nationalist) confessing his sins to his father during his childhood depicts how honesty transforms a child into a pious and outstanding personality.
- Fraternity: Fraternity depicts the sense of belongingness and togetherness, which connotes “swim together or sink together”. It helps children learn solidarity and integration in a group and connects them with others, whether like-minded or not. A good friend circle and family relations are the best mediums to inculcate it in a child, making it a foundation of social cohesion and cooperation.
- Empathy: Being kind-hearted, all children mirror their feelings. They reflect their emotions through actions and responses immersed in empathy. This quality fades away gradually with maturity. However, it should be embraced and instilled in the children to make them understand others’ feelings and act accordingly.
These strengths are partially or fully found in all kids and have immense significance in children’s comprehensive development in certain ways.
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Why Emotional and Behavioural Strengths of a Child are Important?
The emotional and behavioral strengths of a child are major contributors to the conditioning of subsequent characters and traits.
A global research organization started the Strength Quest program, which has mentioned that these strengths are important in inducing various other qualities. The study has concluded that their development has a proportional impact on the following:
- Productivity
- Goal-oriented mindset
- Enhanced interpersonal relations
- Better life choices
They also influence the effective learning and academic success of a child, which is crucial for holistic development. Apart from that, they also have positive implications for the following:
- Personal wellbeing
- Joyful life
- Increased social engagement
- Better academic outcomes
- Inspired for further development
These strengths eventually help in developing the hard (technical) skills and soft (psychological) skills, which are instrumental in facilitating learning processes and academic endeavours.
The above-mentioned factors collectively evolve the best traits in a child.
After going through the importance of these strengths, the next question that arises is how to develop them in a child.
How to Develop Emotional and Behavioural Strengths in a Child?
A child is receptive to learning new things and absorbing observable attributes. This portrays the importance of the conscious upbringing of a child that shapes their character and behavior.
The words of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (Indian spiritual leader) resonate with it, who are: Children are like transparent vessels; whatever you fill them with, they will reflect the same and behave that way.”
Since it is a critical process, several aspects cumulatively contribute to inculcating them, which are mentioned as follows:
Parents as Role Models
Parents are considered custodians of the child’s future. It is a widely accepted fact that the home is the first school and parents are the first instructors. A kid keenly observes and reflects on how parents behave, which makes them follow their parents as a role model.
Quote of Clarence Budington Kelland “My father didn’t tell me how to live. He lived and let me watch him do it,” further clarifies it.
Encourage the Strengths
The fundamental way to boost behavioral strength is first to identify and understand them, and then polish them. This can be done by encouraging them to participate in group activities, helping them to take initiative in diverse social tasks, and associating with other kids.
A study conducted by the University of Toronto and Harvard Graduate School of Education has reported that simply expressing trust in children can promote honesty and truthfulness. This signifies the importance of how encouragement further develops the strengths.
Determine and Approach Goals
Support the children in setting plausible and achievable goals, and divide the goals into realizable parts. Assist them in conforming to the plan, calibrating the order, and accomplishing it. This will develop a spirit of systematic strategizing to achieve bigger objectives.
Positive Reinforcement
It simply means praising positive actions and repudiating negative ones. This builds up confidence, which in turn intensifies the emotional and behavioral strengths.
In this perspective, Margaret Mead, the renowned American anthropologist, has said – “Children should be taught how to think, not what to think.” Re-enforcement nudges a child to approach a specific behavior and emotional response in certain situations.
Set a Supportive Environment
Flourishing a supportive environment does not just mean making basic resources available. It also encompasses providing good books, making children participate in plays and skits, helping them learn musical instruments or any dance form, or supporting them in another form of art.
Develop a Mindset of Growth
With soaring competitiveness thriving in the contemporary era, it becomes a necessity to teach children to handle setbacks and face challenges in life. Start with the small responsibilities and upskill them to manage and mitigate the impact of failures.
The above points provide a template for nurturing behavioral and emotional strengths in children.
However, the base of this entire process is honest and open communication, which makes the child express their feelings, helps find weaknesses and strengths, and fine-tunes their personality.
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Conclusion
The emotional and behavioral strength of the children gets structured with persistent nurturing and constant encouragement, which creates fertile ground for their conscious cognitive development.
Have frank conversations with the kids, decipher their strengths and weaknesses, induce new qualities, be a role model, and let the children learn from your actions rather than examples.
This has been depicted by Mary JO Putney (American Author) by quoting, “What one loves in childhood stays in their heart forever.”
FAQs
Ans: Having cordial and frank conversations, observing the children’s behavior, and analyzing their interests help identify a child’s strengths.
Ans: Children have a myriad of behavioral strengths. However, their prominent strengths are courage, confidence, kindness, empathy, and patience.
Ans: The strengths of a child are categorized into physical strengths, social strengths, linguistic strengths, and emotional and behavioural strengths.
Ans: Some examples of behvaioural strengths of a child are courage, patience, fraternity, and confidence, while some of their weaknesses are defiance, emotional outbursts, a lack of assertiveness, and lying.
