One characteristic that encourages child growth and maturation is a child ‘s self-confidence. Children who are trusted by others will perceive themselves as trustworthy. This concept is about sincerely trusting a child’s verbal statements, values, actions, and beliefs. For example, it is to believe it when it says: I am afraid.
Parents, believing that they have enough information to determine that the statement I am afraid is inaccurate, normally ignore the statement; However, even if adults are more precise and correct, the rejection of what the child decides about himself will probably have negative consequences for his growth and childhood maturity . What the child perceives may be more important than what the adult decides.
In case the significant people for the child do not have confidence in their statements or actions, then the conclusion drawn by the child may be the following: why should I trust myself? You begin to doubt yourself and the validity of your thoughts, emotions, and feelings.
Another characteristic of achieving an environment that encourages child growth and maturation, in addition to self-confidence, is to help the child develop his capacity for empathy . This means learning to be off-center, to get out of yourself, to put yourself in the other’s place and to gain your own points of view, because to the extent that you assume this you will be able to recognize the feelings that exist in others.
Other considerations to take into account
To increase empathy and a helping spirit, it would be advisable for the child to develop a greater sensitivity to the needs and feelings of others , as protecting a child from distressing experiences may restrict his personal basis for empathic understanding in later years. Opportunities for the child to take on the role of others and to be helpful can be provided to foster empathic awareness of the other’s perspective.
The child should be encouraged to put himself in someone else’s shoes, discussing it with him in a complete and detailed way, while still referring both to differences and to the similarities that exist between him and others. Equally, of course, it will be important, in terms of affective development, that the child has the opportunity to observe how their parents and other people behave with supportive and altruistic behaviors . The models that the child looks at facilitate the process of empathy by communicating their own thoughts and feelings when giving help.
An effective way to learn about people’s emotions is to use stories, stories, and anecdotes that help your child understand the feelings of others.
