Building confidence in children is something that concerns parents, active physical play can help. We have all seen the importance of being confident in both physical activities and social interactions as children grow older. Children who are confident have an easier time making friends, facing challenges, and trying new things without feeling shy or embarrassed. Even shy children benefit from a combination of physical and mental confidence.
It is important to encourage and support your child’s development, but one of the best ways to naturally build confidence in children is to allow them opportunities for active play. When your children willfully move their bodies and engage in carefree physical activity around other children, this sets them up for long-term personal confidence in every other activity they face in the future.
But you do not have to trust generalities alone. Let’s take an in-depth look into how active play builds long-term confidence in children.
Developing and Inherent Comfort With Their Growing Bodies
There is no better way to become familiar and confident with your body than to move it around. When children run and play and climb and tumble through their childhood, they are really building coordination and every-day confidence in how their body works. They learn how their muscles feel to stretch and strain, and when to stop.
Children who engage in regular active play develop an inherent comfort with the length and strength of their limbs, the activities that feel right, and activities that might put them at risk of injury. Physical know-how is learned and goes hand-in-hand with being confident about the capabilities, size, and comfort of one’s own body.
Evaporating Shame in Physical Expression
Most children run and play with a carefree attitude and are not self-conscious about sweating or striving or even falling down when they try to jump too high or spin too fast. They laugh, and their friends laugh with them. Children who have these experiences in early and middle childhood are far more likely to maintain that physical confidence and lack of shame in physical expression as they get older.
If you want your child to grow up confident in their body and immune to lingering Victorian shame at physical expression, active play is one of the best ways to achieve this. Children who engage in active play are confident to exercise, sweat, and strive in front of their peers at any age. This will make them more likely to stay fit as they grow older because they will be confident hitting the gym or going jogging in the park as adults.
Building Coordination and Grace Before Puberty
Every parent wishes to spare their children from awkward adolescence. It can be tough to stay coordinated and confident with teenaged growth spurts and sudden personal awareness. But children who have engaged in regular active play know their bodies well, even as they grow. In fact, playing daily through early adolescence can make the growth-spurt transition so much easier because kids are stretching and practicing using their bodies every day of the transition.
For both boys and girls, active play in childhood can help lock in natural physical coordination and grace before puberty sets in so that your children will be more physically confident, coordinated, and graceful during those critical years when confidence matters most.
Confidence Trying New Sports and Activities
Last but certainly not least is confidence in trying new things. One of the hallmarks of active play is a variety of activities to try. With play centers like Kids ‘N Shape with jungle gyms, sports courts, and diverse, active toys, children will learn that there is nothing to fear in switching from one physical activity to another.
This will instill an unconscious type of confidence in children to try new things. Children who engage in active play will be more confident when trying a brand new sport, taking their turn at a new game, and trying all other new activities as they get older. Because they played in many different environments and activities without fear as children, your kids will grow up to be confident in their own ability to be flexible in their activities in the future.
Here at Kids ‘N Shape, we believe in creating an environment where kids of all ages can build physical and personal confidence through active play. There are dozens of different games to play, jungle gyms to climb, and even a zip-line for children to take the plunge all the way across our large indoor facility. Daily active play is one of the best things you can give to your children to build life-long confidence in their bodies and themselves. For more cool information about active play in childhood or visit one of our locations, contact Kids ‘N Shape today!
Comments are closed.