Eileen Kennedy-Moore

Help your child cultivate real, lasting confidence! In Kid Confidence, a licensed clinical psychologist and parenting expert offers practical, evidence-based parenting strategies to help kids foster satisfying relationships, develop competence, and make choices that fit who they are and want to become. As parents, it's heartbreaking to hear children say negative things about themselves. But as children grow older and begin thinking about the world...

Parents can play a major role in helping or hindering children's development of emotional regulation skills. Consider the factors that make emotion regulation difficult for kids and learn techniques for teaching your children to understand and cope with their feelings, both in a "meltdown" situation and on an ongoing everyday basis.

All the parental praise and cheerleading in the world won't make a child develop authentic self-esteem. Discover the important developmental changes that occur in children's self-concepts over time, and how parents can support self-esteem at each stage. Then, take an in-depth look at the core components of authentic self-esteem at any age.

Fear is a necessary emotion. But when a child's responses to perceived threats are more intense, pervasive, and enduring than the situation warrants, anxiety can become a serious problem. Pick up practical ways you can help children learn to cope with the thoughts and behaviors that trigger and accompany anxiety, as well as anxiety's physical manifestations.

Parents can't make their children happy - what they can do is help them develop the skills and attitudes that contribute to happiness. Gain strategies for guiding and supporting kids in building a life that incorporates pleasure, engagement, and meaning, from teaching them how to relish positive experiences to helping them break free from perfectionism.

Explore the stages of how children learn to play: solitary, parallel, associative, and cooperative play. Witness the extraordinary variety of children's pretend play and understand its social and emotional importance. Dive into the research and learn what experts say about war games and roughhousing. Finally, take a look at games with rules and how to help your child handle winning and losing.

Empathy involves more than just "being nice." Explore the three interwoven strands of empathy - affective resonance, cognitive perspective taking, and motivation for compassionate behavior. Then, look closely at three more general ways of helping children develop empathy, including challenging empathy exceptions and giving kids a path forward when they behave in unkind ways.

Parents can't make friends for their children, nor can they prevent them from ever feeling upset. But with the right guidance, they can support them in learning how to solve problems, cope with feelings, and build satisfying relationships. Gain a deeper understanding of the child's development and ways to address stumbling blocks with compassion.