Fostering Independence in Children

5 Things to Know or Do:

1. Offer opportunities for responsibility that are age appropriate. Give children a chance to practice completing tasks or part of tasks alone. This helps them feel powerful, necessary to the success of the family or group, and capable.
2. Empower children by believing that they can develop persistence, achieve new goals, and do hard things. Communicate to your children that sometimes we practice many times before we learn a new skill.
3. Offer choices and strategies so they have ownership of the task they choose to attempt.
4. Provide support for greatest success. Offer additional help or new strategies if needed to help children feel successful. Avoid doing something for a child if they can achieve it alone or giving them a task that is too difficult which causes frustration.
5. Notice aloud to the child what you have seen them achieve or the effort they have given and allow them to experience the natural reward of the feeling of success.

3 Sites to Visit

1. Child Mind Institute: How to Build Independence in Preschoolers
2. NAEYC: Growing Independence: Tips for Parents of Toddlers and Twos
3. Scholastic: Ages & Stages: Nurturing Young Children’s Independence

 4 + 3 Children Read Alouds

1. I choose to Try Again: A Colorful, Rhyming Picture Book About Perseverance and Diligence by Elizabeth Estrada.  A story about how to keep going even when things get too hard.

2. Oliver West! It’s Time to Get Dressed! By Kelly Louise.  A story about learning a new skill.
3. The OK Book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (Fairfax Library) A story to show that being OK can be great.
4. Beautiful Oops! By Barney Saltzberg (Fairfax Library) A story that shares that it is okay to make mistakes.

   (+3 More Books) 

   You Can Do It, Bert! by Ole Könnecke. (Fairfax Library) A story about encouragement.

   Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall. (Fairfax Library) A story about courage.

   A Chair for My Mother by Vera B Williams. (Fairfax Library) A story about how a child, her mother and grandmother save money to buy a new chair.

 2 Videos to View

1. Michigan State University Extension: Developing Independence in Children
2. PBS Learning Media: The Morning Routine - Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood

 1 Point of Research to Access

1. The Growth of Independence in the Young Child, John Bowlby, M.A.,M.D., Deputy Director, Tavistock Clinic, London

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