What's Your Superpower?
YOU are a superhero. You may not know it, but your superpower can help the world.
One of the central themes in the Superheroes Club series is the fact that Lily is a confident, independent and spirited little girl who loves life and is eager to make other people’s lives better, especially children.
Those are some of Lily’s strengths that make her special and unique. But Lily also recognizes the special and unique qualities in her friends, and she enlists their help to use their strengths to help others as well.
It can be challenging to find your own strengths and help your child find his or hers. But we can help with some ideas through this blog and of course, the book.
Helping Your Child Discover His/Her Superpowers
It’s never too early to help your child discover his or her strengths and find out how he or she can use those strengths (we’ll codename them “superpowers”) to serve their communities in school, in their neighborhoods, and even around the world.
Start a conversation with your child about his or her superpowers. These questions should help you get the conversation going -
- What do you think you’re good at? – There is no right or wrong answer here. Allow your child to communicate to you what they think they are good at. Does their answer align with what you have observed they are good at? Watch how they answer this question. Write their answers down or have them create a piece of art out of it.
- What do you like to do when you are not in school or playing? – Your child could be good at something but it may not necessarily mean they enjoy that activity. Have them tell you what they love to do! You have probably observed them enjoy activities they may not even think about listing. Keeping track of when your child smiles, laughs, and asks to do activities again and again can make this process a little easier.
- How can you use the things you are good at or the things you like to do to help your friends at school/at home/in your community? – The whole point of figuring out what we’re good at is so we can appreciate our uniqueness as well as find out how we can serve the world around us to make it a better place. Helping kids discover all the ways they can serve their communities, with their abilities, is a great way to set them up to become sharing, caring, empathetic adults.
Building Confidence
The other piece of the equation when it comes to helping children discover their unique skills and talents is building up their confidence to use them.
A child who is excited about the environment needs to be encouraged by parents and/or teachers to not be embarrassed by their love for the environment, even if it is not a popular theme among their peers.
How do we build that kind of confidence in them?
The best way to teach confidence to our kids is to begin by modeling confidence as adults. It is well proven that children adapt to what they see consistently. If they grow up in an atmosphere where unique abilities and diverse interests are celebrated and encouraged, and they see their adult models living and feeling confident about themselves, they will learn to embrace those attitudes as well.
And similarly, if they are discouraged to explore and discover what interests them, even if it may be out of the norm, they may not develop the confidence to reach their full potential in life and certainly not be able to make a difference in the world.
A second way to help children build up their own confidence is to celebrate their efforts in trying new things, even if they fail, and to avoid comparisons with other children that put your child down or make them feel inadequate.
Start the conversation with your child around that which makes them special and unique early. Encourage your child to use his or her strengths to make their world a better place and something that will certainly help their confidence. Encourage them to be imaginative and creative about exploring their strengths, practicing what they are interested in, and interacting with others who need help. Finally, avoid the comparison game, particularly between siblings, friends and other children.
Following some of these strategies will help your child discover and use his or her heroic powers in the most special ways.