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Slide 1: Many Benefits to Identifying Strengths in Young Learners There are many challenges when it comes to parenting, not the least of which is helping your child or children find unique areas of strength in all aspects of their lives. It can be in sport, in social activities, in artistic pursuits, community engagement and academic achievement, or simply in being able to look at themselves and shine a light on all the things about them that are unique only to them. The importance of finding methods of identifying strengths in your children, and showing them these methods, can never be underestimated, as it gives them a skill they can use throughout their lives, whenever their self-esteem is taking a battering, as it inevitably will. These strengths should not be found at the expense of others by comparing the child with someone with lesser skills in the same area. Such comparisons can result in an inflated ego, which is not the same thing as high self-esteem at all. Building on their strengths can allow the child to form positive beliefs in their own ability. One of the benefits of having tutors Sydney working with children is that they can help in identifying strengths in their students, as well as find the academic areas where they are struggling. By identifying their strengths, the tutor is able to get a well balanced understanding of the child’s behaviour and learning style. The tutor is then able to set some reasonable expectations for the time spent with the student, and follow that up with appropriate learning goals. It is important for the student to be allowed time to work on academic areas where they are already achieving, as they will want to show their tutor how well they perform in a certain area. This supports confidence-building, as usually, most of the focus of the lesson time is on areas where they are failing. It’s natural for children to prefer doing the things they are good at, and to use skills where they can demonstrate competence more often. These things are easy to them, and so they enjoy them and given their own choices, will gravitate towards them. Both the parents and the tutor have an opportunity then to praise
Slide 2: and reward these achievements, which will reinforce them and make the child feel valued. The challenge for the tutor Gold Coast then, is to find ways to turn these increased feelings of competence and self-worth towards the areas of skill that are lacking. One suggestion is to work with the student to create a “strengths poster” for display on the wall of their room, which keeps things in perspective for days when things go wrong. Spending time with children in identifying strengths is an exercise that has been proven to engage students on a consistent basis. It can also provide the extra encouragement some of them need to learn new things, or to work at getting better at things they know, but aren’t particularly good at yet. http://www.personaltutors.com.au/