“I Am Me!” Support Your Child’s Growing Self-Concept and Developing Self-Help Skills

“I Am Me!” Support Your Child’s Growing Self-Concept and Developing Self-Help Skills

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You may be wondering what self-concept means and how this relates to your baby. Self-Concept centers on the way a person sees himself as an individual. Though a person develops his Self-Concept throughout a lifetime, he starts building his beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, and understanding about himself during infancy.1 Also closely tied to self-concept is the development of self-esteem. Self-esteem is a person’s internal belief of how capable, significant, and worthy he is.2 The way your baby develops his self-esteem and self-concept is highly dependent on the way he relates to you and other caregivers during his early years.1,2

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The sense of “I am me,” as discovered by 9-12 month-old children, is both exciting and frightening to them. While your baby still needs your support and protection, you will notice him starting to become more independent at this stage by striking it out on his own to explore in a more solitary fashion. You will see him develop his independence and seek out self-help opportunities as he watches and imitates your daily routine.3,4 For instance, you may find him helping you dress him by raising his arms to put on a shirt or lifting a leg to get pants on. He may also wipe his mouth and hands after eating or take his socks and shoes off by himself.

How to Nurture Your Child’s Self-Concept

Supporting his independence can include creating a safe environment in which your baby can explore by occasionally providing new items of interest,5 such as containers, musical instruments, or new books. Allow him to help with simple tasks, like handing you non-fragile items, helping to feed pets, and cleaning up a small spill he left on the table.2 You should consider rewarding his independent behavior with words, such as “Look what you found!” or “You’re sooo big! Thank you for helping.” Rewarding his efforts with positive statements and loving hugs and kisses will let him know that his help is an important contribution to your family.

You can further support your baby’s positive development of Self-Concept by listening and responding to his attempts to communicate.3 At this age, you will find your baby starting to join conversations by responding to your words with babble or to songs by clapping. By listening and responding to his “words” and gestures, you will make him feel important, included, and empowered as an individual. This will help build his Self-Concept as an individual as well as a member of a loving and supportive family.

Play Tips:

Do you want to know how you can support your baby’s development of these Self-Concept skills at this age? It’s easy! Read on for some simple tips to incorporate into your daily play time together.

  1. Expose your baby to age-appropriate experiences and skills. Be sure to support your baby by giving him learning experiences that fit his age and his social-emotional development. While it may be tempting to expose him to more advanced skills and stimuli in an attempt to boost his learning, it may actually do more harm than good to his self-esteem if he suffers failure and frustration by attempting things he’s not ready for. By choosing new activities he can enjoy and successfully navigate on his own, he will come to feel capable and good about himself.6,7
  2. Encourage your baby to take care of himself.4,5 Even at 9-12 months old, he can start to take part in daily rituals, such as wiping himself with a wash cloth at bath time or helping to put on his clothes in the morning or pajamas at night. Try giving your baby a few different shirts or pants to choose from, so that he can build his decision-making skills and develop his preferences and likes and dislikes.
  3. Model self-help skills for your baby to follow.4 Your baby is at the age where he is getting interested in helping himself. Show him a variety of simple self-help skills, by demonstrating on yourself or on his favorite doll, including brushing your hair and using a napkin to wipe your mouth after eating. He is learning through imitation at this age, so brush your teeth together to encourage the development of that skill.
  4. Focus on your baby’s likes (and dislikes). Knowing how your baby prefers to be soothed, who he prefers to be comforted by, and which personal items he is most comfortable with will free him up to explore his environment confidently. Understanding his own preferences will allow him to not only take care of himself, it will also develop his understanding of his individuality and unique likes and dislikes.

(SPECIAL OFFER: Sign up for Playful Bee’s Bee Well developmental learning program to give your baby the best start in life. The first 10,000 children enroll for FREE! Sign up today.)

Developmental Milestones:

Has your baby achieved the following Self-Concept developmental milestones yet? If yes, check off all the skill(s) she has already mastered to date using Playful Bee’s developmental milestones tracker. It’s absolutely FREE and easy to use, just click HERE!

  • Holds out arms and legs to help get dressed.

 

Sources:

1Meece, J. L. (1997). Child and Adolescent Development for Educators. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies.

2Landy, Sarah (1994). Developing Self-Esteem in Young Children. Infant Mental Health Promotion (IMHP). Retrieved February 12, 2014, from http://www.imhpromotion.ca/Portals/0/IMHP%20PDFs/IMPRINT/09IMPReprint-Landy.pdf.

3What to Expect. Your 11-Month-Old Baby: Baby’s Growing Independence. What to Expect.Retrieved February 12, 2014, from http://www.whattoexpect.com/first-year/month-by-month/your-child-month-11.aspx.

4Maryland State Department of Education (2010). Healthy Beginnings: Supporting Development and Learning from Birth through Three Years of Age.

5Washington State Department of Early Learning (2012). Washington State Early Learning and Development Guidelines: Birth through 3rd Grade.

6Elkind, David (2001). The Hurried Child: Growing Up too Fast Too Soon. Lavonia, MI: Addison Wesley Longman Publishing.

7Gellens, Suzanne R. (2013). Building Brains. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press

Playful Bee

Education Team at Playful Bee
Playful Bee is an e-Preschool that delivers inquiry-based preschool learning from the classroom to your home. Our preschool curriculum was created by our talented team of rock star teachers. With years of hands-on preschool and Kindergarten teaching experience, they've developed a high-quality preschool experience that is convenient-to-use and easy-to-teach by you, grandparents, or your nanny at home.

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