by Brisbane Tutor Justin Clark
Since 2020, with a pandemic and the introduction of lockdowns, we’ve faced many big life changes and new routines that have had to be adapted to quickly. However, something incredibly positive that has come out of it is the increased spotlight on self-care, particularly of our minds. There are countless ways to practice self-care, but the strategy we’re going to discuss today is positive affirmations, which are great for building confidence and a strong sense of self-worth.
How Does Mental Health Impact Children with Learning Difficulties?
Children with learning disabilities or difficulties commonly suffer from low self-confidence and low self-esteem, which can be precursors to mental health issues like anxiety and depression. According to the Mental Health Foundation, children with learning disabilities are 4.5x more likely to have a mental health problem, and 54% of people who have a learning disability have a mental health problem. Mental health disorders can have a substantial impact on children’s day-to-day lives and their future. It’s imperative that we address these issues as soon as we can. Prevention in the form of confidence-building can happen in many ways – one of which is positive affirmations.
How do Positive Affirmations Help Kids with Learning Difficulties?
Affirmations are short positive phrases to actively practise positive thinking and self-empowerment, challenging negative self-talk. Positive affirmations are backed by neuroscientific research, with multiple studies finding they decrease stress and make people more receptive to handling ‘threatening messages’. They’re also supported by psychological theory, namely Steele’s self-affirmation theory, which presented empirical evidence to support the idea that we can use positive statements to maintain our self-integrity.
Positive affirmations are a great habit to build into children’s lives and are easily adjustable for different ages and goals. They can be as simple as “I am kind”, “I respect myself” or “I am proud of myself”. Or they may be slightly longer, such as “I am learning and growing”, “I deserve to feel good about myself” or “the challenges I face are opportunities to grow and improve”.
There are some awesome physical affirmation cards out there specifically designed for kids, and also apps, like I AM, which give you a new affirmation each day. This is a wonderful way to start the day positively, and can also be a great family activity to engage in collectively.
Why do We Need Positive Affirmations?
In our culture, children are often taught not to ‘boast’. They’re told that while it’s great to praise others, praising oneself is interpreted as vain, self-centred or ‘big-noting’. This communicates to children that to be humble, they must not acknowledge their own successes. While the goal of these teachings is often to remove comparative talk, it’s important for people to understand that acknowledging the strengths, skills, or achievements of one person does not diminish anyone else. Positive affirmations are designed specifically to allow people to focus on themselves and recognise their inherent worth.
How do Positive Affirmations Help Self-Esteem?
Positive affirmations build self-esteem and motivate people to compound upon their successes. This is particularly important for children with learning difficulties. They can often feel defeated in the classroom when they seem to have to work harder than others to achieve the same result. Our school system often recognises academic success over effort or improvement. Having a strong sense of self-worth can aid children in both celebrating their own successes and their ability to lift up those around them.
How do Positive Affirmations Help Resilience?
Resilience is valuable across life in helping us manage setbacks and face challenges. Positive affirmations are really helpful to support children in building this trait. Having strong self-confidence improves our ability to cope with failure and learn from our mistakes, as it gives us the ability to remain open to success after disappointment.
In a similar vein, as positive affirmations are all about your inherent value as a person, this can help us build the confidence to ask for help. When we are able to stop seeing the inability to complete a task as a problem with ourselves, and instead view it as a skill or piece of knowledge to learn, it makes it easier and less embarrassing for children to ask for help. This is particularly true for those with learning difficulties who may need assistance more often.
How do Positive Affirmations Promote a Growth Mindset?
Positive affirmations also help to support the facilitation of a growth mindset by focusing on the positive. Having a growth mindset is incredibly valuable for learning and life because it primes us to be open and motivated to learn, and lowers performance anxiety. Similarly, positive affirmations also encourage us to be grateful and focus on the positive aspects of our days. This reduces stress and makes people happier overall.
Challenging Negative and Unhelpful Thoughts with Positive Affirmations
The disruption of negative thinking patterns is another benefit of positive affirmations. Actively practising self-care and self-love in this way combats unhelpful thoughts and redirects us towards appreciating the things we can do. This focus on positives helps to build perseverance through concurrently increasing motivation and resilience. This makes us less likely to give up in the face of adversity. Clearly, this is an incredibly useful skill for children to have, especially for children who are likely to face more frequent obstacles in a school environment compared to their peers.
Encouraging an optimistic mindset with positive affirmations helps children get used to identifying their strengths rather than focusing on their weaknesses. This will make them better at solving issues they encounter. They will be more likely to concentrate on the solution rather than the problem, and will be able to approach it with greater confidence in their abilities.
Positive affirmations are a simple and powerful way to increase self-worth and self-esteem, which helps children tackle the situations they face with confidence and surety that they really can do it! You might be surprised yourself at the extent to which saying a few words can have a positive impact on your day, so we encourage you to give this one a go: “I am smart, strong, brave and beautiful, and today is going to be a good day”.
Contact Justin
Hope Tutoring, led by Justin Clark, specialises in tutoring students with learning difficulties. Contact us today if you are looking for a Tutor in Brisbane or someone who can do remote tutoring.