Parenting Tips for Your 15-16 Month Old Toddler
Your child’s view of herself is the thoughts, feelings, and ideas she has about herself. All together, these shape her ideas about how important, lovable, and capable she is.
Your child’s view of herself is determined by the way you and others treat her. If she sees that she is treated as an important, competent young person by the people who are important to her, then she will feel she is valuable and competent.
Your child needs to know that you continue to love her even when you don’t like what she does. She needs to know that you expect a lot from her, but that you can accept her limited abilities. High self-confidence is possible for everyone. It’s not determined by a family’s money, education, social class, or dad’s or mom’s occupation.
The basic foundation for your child’s self-concept is being built during the first years of her life. Because you and others cared for her, played with her, and responded to her needs to grow and learn, she learned how valuable she was to you.
She also learned that you believed in her ability to learn and develop new skills. She needs this care, guidance, and respect from you as she continues to form her self-concept.
Building self-esteem in children is one of the greatest challenges of parenthood. The tips on guidance, the play ideas, feeding and language suggestions in this newsletter will help you encourage your young one to feel loved and competent.
