The Power Of Positive Affirmations

by Brisbane Tutor Justin Clark

Last Updated: October 2026

Positive affirmations are short, encouraging statements that help children practise a more supportive way of talking to themselves.

Phrases such as “I can learn this one step at a time” or “Making mistakes helps me improve” can help when schoolwork feels difficult, when they compare themselves with classmates or when they begin to doubt their abilities.

At Hope Tutoring, we understand that children learn in different ways and may need different kinds of support to feel confident in their abilities.

Do Positive Affirmations Help Neurodivergent Kids?

• For children who experience learning difficulties, repeated challenges at school can sometimes affect confidence as well as academic progress.
• Positive affirmations can be one small way to encourage self-belief, resilience and a willingness to keep trying.
• 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.
• They work best when they feel realistic to the child and are supported by genuine encouragement, achievable goals and recognition of effort.

Positive Affirmations for Children: Building Confidence and Self-Belief

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. In this guide, we explore how parents can introduce positive affirmations, choose phrases that suit their child and use them as part of a supportive approach to learning.

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 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 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.

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 With 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.

Challenging Negative and Unhelpful Thoughts with Positive Affirmations

Actively practising self-care and self-love 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. 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.

Can You Teach Your Child Positive Affirmations Without Dismissing Their Emotions?

It’s helpful to focus on addressing negative self-talk without dismissing your child’s feelings. This acknowledges the child’s frustration while offering a more constructive way forward. It’s okay to express and feel negative emotions, and affirmations are most useful when they help children respond to difficult experiences with self-compassion and a realistic sense of what they can do next.

For example, if a child says, “I’m terrible at maths”, immediately responding with “No, you’re brilliant at maths!” might not feel convincing to them.

Instead, a parent could say: “I can see that maths feels really hard today. You don’t have to understand it all yet. Let’s look at the first step together.”

When a child says…	Try an affirmation such as…
“I’ll never understand this.”	“I might understand it with practice and support.”
“I’m the slowest in the class.”	“I can learn at my own pace.”
“I got that wrong again.”	“Now I know something I need to practise.”
“I can’t do this without help.”	“Asking for help is one way I learn.”
“Everyone else is better than me.”	“I can focus on my own progress.”

How Do You Introduce Positive Affirmations to Children?

• Choose them together. Ask your child what they find difficult and what kind of encouragement helps them.
• Keep the language natural. Use words the child would actually say, rather than phrases that feel forced or overly grown-up.
• Connect affirmations to real experiences. If a child persists with a challenging task, remind them that they kept trying even when it was difficult.
• Use them at helpful moments. A phrase before homework or after a setback may feel more relevant than repeating statements on a rigid schedule.
• Let the child opt in. Encourage experimentation without turning affirmations into another task they can get wrong.

How Can Affirmations be Adapted for a Neurodivergent Child?

• Focusing on an individual skill or task rather than labelling the child as clever or not clever.
• Recognising persistence, problem-solving and asking for help, not only correct answers.
• Using short, clear phrases if long statements feel overwhelming.
• Pairing encouragement with practical support, such as breaking homework into smaller steps.
• Choosing language that respects the child’s learning differences instead of suggesting they must simply think more positively.

What are Some Kid-Friendly Affirmations to Practise Today?

You can adapt these phrases to your child’s age, communication preferences and circumstances. A child who dislikes saying affirmations aloud might prefer reading them, writing them down or choosing a phrase from a card. Try:

• “I don’t have to know everything straight away.”
• “I can ask for help when I need it.”
• “I am learning something new every day.”
• “I can take a break and try again.”
• “My mistakes help me understand what to practise.”
• “I have strengths, even when something is difficult.”
• “I am proud of the effort I put in.”
• “I can learn in a way that works for me.”

Contact Justin to Learn More

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”.

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.

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