Thankfulness develops throughout childhood. As children develop, they can understand gratefulness in different ways. Preschoolers and Toddlers may require prompting. Parents may have to prompt younger children to say thank you or encourage them to think about how nice it is when someone does something for them.
As they get older, children will start making associations between experiencing gratitude (by noticing, thinking, and feeling) with expressing gratitude (doing). Here are some toddler's and preschooler’s tips on building a foundation for becoming thankful people.
1. Model Gratitude for Children
To raise grateful children, we must be grateful parents. Do you model thankfulness with your spouse, other family members, and other people that you encounter? Kids, especially toddlers, learn by imitating those around them. Our children see and hear so much. Practice gratitude yourself and let your children see you and explain to them your actions of showing thankfulness.
2. Encourage Your Kids to Say Thank You
"Thank you’ is one of the first words that should be taught and encouraged to say. You can encourage your little ones to give thanks by modeling how and when to say thank you and prompting them to say thank you. This is also a way of teaching manners.
3. Identify and Talk About Emotions
Gratitude/being Thankful is a feeling that can be difficult for young children to understand and process. Speaking to your preschooler/toddler and understanding their feelings (for example, like happiness, sadness, anger, and fear) may have a positive effect on understanding gratitude and learning about thankfulness. Toddlers can express a wide range of emotions, and this is a great age to start talking about different feelings.
Talk with your children about what emotions they are feeling, how they feel, and what other things make them feel that way. At first, you may need to give your child the words, such as saying, “You’re feeling mad that it’s time to leave the park.” But eventually, they will be able to name their feelings and tell you how certain situations make them feel.
4. Talk About Being Thankful with Your Kids
Speaking with your child to express more gratitude behaviors (including acknowledging gifts and experiencing positive feelings in response to receiving a gift) on days when the parents engaged their children in gratitude-directed acts (such as asking their child to think about why they received something and Increase their awareness of being thankful).
Suggestions to help teach your child to practice gratitude by talking about it are:
Ask about their feelings when they’ve received something!
Talk about a shared experience and why it makes you feel thankful!
Praise them for expressing gratitude!
5. Help Toddlers and Preschoolers to Send Thank You Notes
I think it’s important to send a thank you card after having a party where people bring presents or after receiving a gift from someone. This can be an art project moment of making their own thank you cards. Since most can’t write use magazine cutout words to paste onto thank you card your child made.
6. Use Media for Teaching Toddlers and Preschoolers Thankfulness
Media, such as books, television shows, and songs can help teach and reinforce thankfulness for toddlers and preschoolers.
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