Self Management Skills for Kids

 

Self-management skills are essential to develop in children, as these skills will help discipline themselves and focus on what really matters for academic success, good intra- and inter-personal relationships, healthy lifestyle, and achieving long term goals.

However, children do not learn these skills on their own. But as responsible parents or teachers (in school settings), you can begin to introduce management skills for kids into their routine without turning it into a formal learning exercise.

During the formative years, it is easier to mold kids and help them develop management skills.

What is Self-Management?

In one line, self-management is all about becoming self-aware and managing your emotions, which indirectly helps manage your behaviour and actions.

Let’s break them in two areas:

• Managing emotions: This involves developing the ability to handle emotions and thoughts in various situations. It starts with recognizing and identifying your emotions - why you feel certain emotions like anger or sadness. And from here begins the journey to deal with these emotions.

• Focusing on goals: We all have the ability to fulfill our aspirations. But not all of us know how to manage our emotions. This inability acts as a barrier between us and our full potential. To stay focused and motivated, children need skills such as self-motivation and resilience to overcome instant gratification, stress or negative thoughts.

Self-management is not possible without self-awareness, and being self aware is not enough if you do not self-manage. Both skills should go hand-in-hand until they merge into one lifelong skill and becomes a habit.

6 Self-Management Skills for Young Learners

1. Ability to pay attention: Teach kids to focus attention using open-ended questions and give them time to think before responding. For example, “What do you think about going for a picnic? What if your parents say no?”
2. Managing time well: Children who do things (e.g. homework) at the last minute tend to be more stressed and get upset with others. Teach your child to plan, organize, and prioritize tasks with clear schedules and reminders.
3. Goal-setting: For children to stay motivated, writing a daily goal list – even simple tasks – can build motivation. Parents can do this too, shifting routines into meaningful, goal-driven accomplishments.
4. Interpersonal skills: Kids with poor interpersonal skills struggle during social interactions and cannot express themselves confidently. Encourage them to have open communication, tell them any similar social experiences you faced earlier to make their interpersonal skills stronger.
5. Problem solving: Problem-solving activities help children pause and think before reacting emotionally. Practicing social scenarios builds familiarity with solutions, making it easier for them to handle real-life conflicts calmly and effectively.
6. Impulse control: If your child acts impulsively without thinking, gets angry or frustrated quickly, and tends to misbehave; help them identify the root cause behind these emotions and encourage them to pause and think before acting or speaking.