The Powerful Role Affirmations Play in Child Learning

The very core of the mind is developed early in life and is the part of that controls our automatic responses.  If a child has an experience where a dog snapped and scared him or her, every time he or she sees a dog, they can react in fear without remembering or understanding why.  In this example, you could write affirmations with your child to do with loving animals and feeling safe near dogs.

Positive affirmations can help the child development process immensely.  You can use them from any age, but should try to introduce them by at least four.  Some mothers begin when the child is in the womb and hypnobirthing is a popular technique that encourages this.  What you are writing probably will not be remembered consciously, but it will be carried with your child through his or her life as part of who he or she is.  Your child does not need to be awake if you are reading to them.  Child development studies show that children learn an hour into sleeping.  It is also important to be consistent and making a bedtime routine is a good way to do this.

Affirmations are simply a statement or suggestion about positive outcomes and personal abilities that are declared to be true.  To say "I want to be more assertive" is not an affirmation, but if you said "I am assertive", it would be, because you are saying it as though it is already true.  If you said, "I hope I can speak clearly and sound confident" it is not a definite, where if you said "I speak clearly with confidence", it is. 

The idea of using positive affirmations for your child development strategy is to instill a strong sense of self and a positive sense of worth for him or her to draw on at anytime.  It also teaches him or her to use optimistic thought patterns and have a bright outlook.  You can personalize your child’s affirmations depending on how old he or she is and his or her particular hobbies and personality. 

There are two aspects to the "I Treasure You" process of writing affirmations. The first process is generated by the parent. This comes in the form of a positive "you" statement that affirms and reinforces the strengths, talents, personality and worth of the child.

Consider this example. If your child is very social and great with people, but you have noticed a reluctance to share, you can write something with him or her to help with his or her social development. If you write "Sally is a kind child who shares her toys and helps other children have fun," say it to Sally and let Sally read this, she will begin to see herself as a child who shares. As a parent or relative that Sally trusts, Sally will be open to listen to and adopt this suggestion.

The second step of the process is that Sally says the affirmation to herself. You may make up a sign together that says "I love to share toys and I help other children have fun".  Imagine the impact this has instead of berating him or her for not sharing and reinforcing the negative behavior!  In no time at all you will see changes in him or her, as you help him or her build new beliefs about him or herself.