To help your child become an autonomous and resilient learner:
Parent with firmness.
In his book Age of Opportunity, adolescent psychology expert Dr. Laurence Steinberg explains how to parent more intelligently and effectively in order to raise healthier, happier and more successful teens.
His findings have shown that young people who are raised in “authoritative” homes, in which parents are warm and supportive yet firm, are more psychosocially mature, responsible, self-assured, creative, intellectually-curious, socially-skilled, and academically-successful.
Parenting with firmness means establishing clear limits, rules and expectations for your children and applying them consistently and fairly. Here are a few guidelines for being a firm parent:
- Be clear: explain your rules, expectations and consequences clearly.
- Be consistent: apply your rules consistently.
- Be flexible: modify your rules and expectations as a your child matures.
- Be predictable: establish routines for your child for recurring daily tasks.
- Apply consequences effectively: stay calm; point-out your child’s behaviour and explain how it impacts you; discuss more appropriate ways in your child could have acted; state the consequences; and explain how you expect your child to behave the next time.