skip to Main Content

6 Ways to Empower Your Child

Empowerment is an important skill to establish with ALL children to help them believe in their knowledge, capabilities and opinions. Check out our six suggestions to help your child feel empowered without feeling too much like a boss or wallflower!

Ask your child’s opinion during conversation

With our busy lives it can be easy to glaze over when your child is telling a story and then respond with remarks like “uh huh” and “yeah”. Make an effort to use a “tell me more” and “how does this make you feel?” approach to conversation. When children are asked their opinion, they often times have many thoughts and opinions to share. Being asked to share opinions and to elaborate on stories helps children feel valued during conversation. This can lead to children speaking up for what they believe is right and wrong.

Let your child explore options

You’re walking into a restaurant and your child begins to touch everything in sight and walk around to check out the surroundings. Instead of saying, “just sit still”, “don’t touch that”, “stop doing that”, allow your child to make choices. This doesn’t mean to let your child go wild or to ignore the possibility of your child being hurt. Sometimes it is best for a child to see and understand consequences of an action. Most people learn best from experience not from verbal statements. For example, if your child wants to spend all allowance on one toy instead of saving for the big one, don’t say “Do not do that! It’s a poor decision.”, just let the child do so and process the decision. This technique cannot be used constantly, as children need guidance, just pepper it in when appropriate times arise.

Ask for their help

Children adore being ask for help. Embrace the young years because children come running to help cook, help with a task, and be part of a project. Make your child feel needed and that their knowledge and creativity is valued when completing the task. It can be fun to “play naive” and let your child take the reins for a bit. Try it out and you’ll be amazed at what your child is capable of doing!

Give them something to care for

Supplying your child with the responsibility of taking care of something can allow the child to watch their success grow. Great ways to start are with a plant or garden or family pet. Even a little goldfish can make your child feel in charge of something!

Don’t try to make everything perfect

As a parent you want your child’s world to be rainbows and butterflies, but imperfection can actually help a child to understand consequences of choices and actions. When a speed bump arises, let it ride out to see how your child handles the situation. We often become too involved too quickly and do not give our children the chance to act upon scenarios themselves.

Alone time

Let your child have “alone time” and to select an activity of choice. This helps the child to feel independent and in charge of their interests and ideas. Allowing your child to try their interest is important. We would all love our children to partake in our past or current interests, but children can gain great happiness and sense of pride from selecting their own and participating in them.

 

Back To Top

Patient Reviews

LLA Therapy

Patient Reviews

Crystal Scheibe

Facebook
Great place, glad we found them. Been going to Medina over 2 months now and he loves Lauryn and Kyler. Wish they had more ABA therapy places available... live in Wooster and long drive everyday.

Karrie Swan LaRock

Facebook
My 11 year old son has dyslexia and has made noticeable gains in working At LLA THERAPY. Katie is strong in her approach toward him and also keeps him comfortable enough to perform well. We will continue visiting both the Fairlawn and Hudson offices and recommend them highly.

Ron Monroe

Facebook
My 9 year old just completed about 9 months of weekly speech sessions (due to his stuttering) with Matt Hagge at LLA and we are thrilled with the experience and results. What I thought might be a negative (what kid really wants to go to speech class?) was made very positive by Matt, and my son never hesitated or complained when we talked about class. He really enjoyed it and really took what Matt taught him to heart. His speech has been greatly improved and we definitely recommend LLA. Thank you so much!

Heather Dougherty-Pantoja

Facebook
My son’s Occupational Therapist, Jess, is an amazing OT! She gives practical tips on working with my son at home and school!

Terri Apgar

Facebook
I cannot say enough good things about LLA Therapy. My daughter was a client of Teal Simmons’ for approximately 2 years and was just released from speech therapy! She was diagnosed with Apraxia in 2015 and worked with Teal twice a week. Through Teal’s application of PROMPT therapy, my daughter had age-appropriate speech after one year. All of the staff we interacted with at LLA were absolutely wonderful. They really care about what they do and making sure your child achieves their goals.

Kelli Geisler Davisson

Facebook
LLA Therapy has been an excellent experience for my son as well as my family! My son always asks, "When can I go see Ms. Jeannine again, is it Monday??" He has also made huge gains in only 5 months! I would highly recommend LLA and have already shared my experience with friends looking for services!

Victoria Hansford-Price

Facebook
We are so grateful for our Speech Therapist Ms.Teal. We have seen a great improvement with our sons confidence and communication abilities since we have started "Prompt" therapy. What we love the most about LLA and Ms. Teal is that Kohl feels comfortable and relaxed which has played a critical role in his progress. Thank you Ms. Teal for all you have done.

Laura Lee Hogsett

Facebook
They have helped in numerous ways. Speech, OT and behavioral. I've had numerous compliments on my son's progress thanks in very large part to LLA. I would recommend LLA before I recommend our local children's hospitals, though they are good, they don't have the staff that LLA does.

Amy Furukawa

Facebook
We had a great experience with Matt Hagge at LLA! Our Middle School age son was becoming very conscious of his voice, which is nasal due to a cleft palate. Matt helped him to better form his sounds and project his voice in a way that makes the unavoidable nasality less noticeable.Our son is more confident and outgoing & even took on a speaking role in the church play. Matt has the perfect personality to relate with our son, and we would recommend him to anyone needing speech therapy services!

Jessica Havalotti

Facebook
LLA Therapy has been an excellent experience for our daughter. I would highly recommend LLA. Miss Grace was so amazing and I can't believe how quickly our daughter showed improvement. Thank you!
Read More