5 Tips to Develop Decision Making Skills in Children
It is important that we teach our children the valuable life skill of making good decisions. It is a skill that will help them become successful in childhood and as they transit into adulthood. Young children regularly choose how they will behave, which toys or games they would like to play with, which books they would like to read, or which television shows they would like to watch.
If, by contrast, young learners spend their days in settings where everything they do is dictated to them, they will not develop the skills to evaluate, consider, and decide. And experiences that involve choice teach young learners that they can make good decisions! While leadership skills can come naturally, children learn lessons along the way that significantly impact them later in life. The right words at the right time can make all the difference. Here are 5 Tips to Develop Decision Making Skills in Children.
1. Emphasize Perseverance
Children need to learn to handle the loss and move forward when the other team wins or someone else is elected as the class president. Asking open-ended questions that prompt children to think through their reasons for choosing a particular option helps them learn how to evaluate options and think through the consequences.
2. Set a Good Example
Kids are always watching what their parents do. When they see you making good choices, they are more likely to do the same. As a leader, you realize the importance of setting a good example for your team. This is even truer of your role as a parent. You can actually turn a simple dinner into a confidence-building exercise by having your children speak directly to the servers. Allowing them to order and speak directly to the servers will help them gain confidence in themselves and enable them to communicate what they need.
3. Talk about Everyday Decisions
Every good leader knows the art of compromise. Instead of giving your children a firm “yes” or “no” to a request, make an offer and allow them to counter that offer by offering solid points. For example, you can ask them what food they want for breakfast or what activity they want to do. Children should learn how to make good decisions as early in life as possible. Because children get overwhelmed by too many choices, narrow down the options to two or three, whether a child is deciding on afternoon activities or a movie to watch.
4. Talk It Out
Maybe your family has plans to go for a movie or go out for a dinner. Include your child by asking them what movie they prefer to watch or where do they want to go for dinner. Conversing the whole issue out would probably be the best method to inculcate leadership skills in your child. Often, children are eager to begin working in some capacity. If your child wants to set up a lemonade stand, support them and encourage it. This would ensure efficient communication skills as well as infinte confidence which would surely be helpful to your child's future career.
5. Find a Mentor
Appropriate goals for children to choose include developing a new skill (eg. learning to play chess, learning to swim), improving performance in school work or in an area of a particular interest (eg. learning to play a particular piece of music, master a difficult skill in sport), or earning pocket money to save for something special. These tasks can be handed over to a mentor who can spend two hours a day handling your child's day to day leadership sessions and help him/her deal with various issues related to leadership at a regular basis.
