A child’s self-esteem

affects his ability to succeed, and succeeding builds self-esteem.

Children who underachieve in school don’t experience much success.

To boost self-esteem, parents can encourage and help children:

• Set reasonable goals. Reaching goals adds to their store of success experiences.

• Identify obstacles to success and ways to overcome them.

• Take risks and challenges—and stick with them until they are successful.

• Accept mistakes. Only when children feel free to make mistakes are they free to succeed.

• Accept themselves. When a child puts himself down, for example, parents might say, “You think you can’t do anything right. But I know that isn’t true. You’re good at ______. And you can ________ very well.”

• Recognize progress. Parents, for example, can praise steps taken and effort made.

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