A common recipe for success in raising a healthy child relies on four parenting strengths: warmth, responsiveness, encouragement, and teaching (Roggman et al., 2013)*. Parents that are able to focus on these strengths are able to support their children’s cognitive, language, and social-emotional development. What are these four parenting strengths and how can you use them as parents?
Parenting Strengths
Warmth:
What is it?
Your child needs to know that you, as their parent, love and care about them. By being warm and affectionate toward your child, you send the message that you care about them! By showing warmth, you help form the foundation of a warm and caring relationship with your child that they can always rely upon.
How do I do it?
The next time you are with your child express to them your love and care by saying, “I love you, buddy.” You can also show warmth by smiling at your child, or bringing them in close for hugs and cuddles. The key is to be consistent in your warmth toward your child. You want to shoot for at least 80% warmth in your relationship (but 100% should be the true goal!).
Respond:
What is it?
Your child needs you to respond to their experience to learn how to interpret and understand their own world. From better understanding their emotions to understanding how conversations work, you are able to respond to your child to help them grow.
How do I do it?
Every time your child tries to talk with you, you have the opportunity to respond. Every time your child has an emotion you have the opportunity to respond. Try to respond by labeling their emotion or by repeating back to them what they are saying. Your goal should be to fully understand your child’s experience when you interact with them.
Encourage:
What is it?
Your child needs encouragement to try new things that are both exciting and sometimes scary. You can be a supportive cheerleader by encouraging your child in their efforts. From playing with new toys, to trying new activities, your encouragement is very important for your child’s growth.
How do I do it?
Encouraging your child can be as simple as saying, “Wow, it looks like you are really trying hard on your homework!” You can also encourage your child by suggesting new activities for your child to try with their friends. Another easy way to encourage your child is to suggest a way to make a task easier the next time they are struggling with something.
Teach:
What is it?
You are able to teach your child by helping them explore and understand their surrounding world. By providing new experiences to your child, you can help them learn new words, concepts, ideas, and processes.
How do I do it?
The next time you are outside with your child try to notice things that draw their attention. Try to do the following steps: 1) Label the items your child is interested in, “Oh, that is a leaf!” 2) Try to explain their texture to your child, “The leaf is soft and sticky.” 3) Explain to them how the leaf grows, “The tree gets water and then the sun provides it energy so it can grow!”
*The information in this post was informed by the Parents Interactions with Children: Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes measure (Roggman et al., 2013). For more information about parenting strengths that predict children’s developmental success, view the “29 things that parent’s do that predict children’s school readiness.”
