It's Hard to Guide a Child Who Doesn't Have a Concept about the Future
Denny Coates
Helping people become powerful communicators at work and at home. Author, Speaker at DrDennyCoates.com
An obvious fact: very young children don’t understand about the future. If they’re 6 years old, they simply can’t conceive of the fact that in a few years they will be in high school. This inability to comprehend their own desired or possible future extends into adolescence. However, with practice (repetition), a teen can establish this critical thinking skill.
And it’s important that they do so. Your attempts to give them wisdom, help them plan for important future events, and understand the future consequences of their actions depend on whether they’re able to seriously consider the reality of their future. Otherwise, your best efforts to guide them will seem irrelevant to their focus on here-and-now priorities.
To help parents deal with this aspect of development, I’ve written several brief articles:
I hope some of this is helpful. A kid who believes in the future is much easier to coach and guide while growing up.
Teen / Young Adult Success Coach ★ Speaker ★ Executive, Business Leadership Coach
1 年Just the title [almost] says it all!!
EA ( ready ) + Educational Project Management, Early Years Researcher _Consultant _Teacher Positive Psychology Coach for Children &Young People #Montessori Teacher # Content Designer for educational websites
1 年Denny Coates love the fact that you mentioned coaching children….i don’t meet many who talk about this topic. It is my area of interest and one I’m learning to develop more as I go along . I’ve recently run Group coaching workshops for children age 6-13 to prepare them for the future . I tapped into their world with amazing hands on , practical activities inspired from Positive Psychology and Montessori philosophy. Creating the right environment and giving them tools that come natural for them to learn crafting/ designing their near future goals using character strengths and PERMA model .Even those who don’t think about long term goals are inevitably learning by finding the ‘ tomorrow goals’ because they are focused on the next step not the giant leap … would love to show you more . If interested I’m the founder of www.professorhappy.co.uk .
Supporting Parents to Joyfully Navigate Parenthood | Award-winning Parenting Coach | Speaker | Author
1 年I love how concrete you make things in "Growing Kids Need to Believe in Their Future." I would add to this (or perhaps it is a topic for another blog) that parents need to model adulthood as positive and exciting. I feel that a lot of parents are doing a very poor job of modeling excitement and fulfillment in their lives. Instead, they are expressing worry and complaints about their work situations and even about being a parent. Why would a child want to work hard in order to experience adulthood as a heavy yoke rather than place of expansiveness?