SLC S21W1/ Discovering and Fostering Talent in Children

Greetings and welcome to my blog. Today I had a nice time out with my timid niece. When I saw this learning challenge, I knew it was a time to make an impact in her life and help her start her journey to overcoming timidity.

Her case is a very peculiar one because she started school late and this affected her confidence and she’s always on the timid side. She’s ten and is still in Basic three (so you understand what I mean).

What techniques and strategies did you use to strengthen self-esteem and lose stage fright in children?

She’s always afraid and tend to be unsettled whenever people are around her so I had win her trust first. She likes videos and always wants to use her grandma’s phone so I told her that I want to make a beautiful video of her but I would want her to sing, act or dance.

I told her the video was to help her gain more confidence and be bold and she concurred. She doesn’t know how to dance or act and she opted to do a recitation in place of the singing since she was more comfortable with that.

I noticed she was a little frightened but I told her to relax and take some breathing exercises which she did. She felt better and more relaxed.

I proceeded to tell her that to be confident she shouldn’t worry about the people around her but she should focus on what she wants to achieve and we took some time doing some practicals alone.

I demonstrated to her on how to be confident and talk with boldness. Here’s a video to that effect.

I encouraged her to do her recitation in front of the mirror as a way to gain more confidence before her actual performance. She did while encouraging her and spurring her on. When she made mistake, I corrected her calmly and we continued. Soon she was ready to take her performance to the next level.

How did the child feel during the activity? Were you comfortable participating?

During the time with her, she was initially timid like I said but I encouraged her and showed her what to do and how to go about it, it made her do well.

Present were her grandmother, her Aunty, uncle, a family friend and I. She came and did her recitation before us and she was confident and wasn’t timid or shy.

I participated initially when I was putting her through and I was comfortable doing that and she picked up after.

Did you manage to overcome stage fright or, on the contrary, were you very nervous?

She over came her stage fright, she wasn’t nervous but she was actually excited to do her performance unlike her who would shy away from any public show.

She strode in boldly and with an audible voice did her recitation and we applauded her in the end.

Don't hesitate to share the most outstanding and fun moments you experienced while doing the activity.

We had some fun moments. I will say that I was really impressed with her entrance that I had to initially pause and give her a high five and during our breathing exercises, I loved the way she eased into the experience.

Later I asked her how she felt about her performance and she said she was happy. Her confidence has grown and she was proud of herself. She had never done any recitation before people before.

Grams also gave her a high five as well as me on many occasions. It was a good experience in all and I was glad I could help her.

Thank you for reading through. I invite @ngozi996, @jovita30 and @lewaswrite to join the challenge.