How to teach your child to make choices: tips to help develop skills

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How to teach a child to make choices? If you've been making all the choices for your child up to this point, don't expect conscious decisions to be made quickly.

Some tips on how to develop the skill of making choices:

• Small choices every day. In the evening, offer several books from which the child can choose which one to read at night. The next time, let them choose what to buy in the store - sweets for tea or a toy. Gradually expand the number and range of choices and move from a limited number of options to complete freedom.
• Read fairy tales with your child in which the main character has to make a choice. Discuss with your child what might have happened if the character had made a different choice. Fairy tales are the easiest way to show the consequences of choices using age-appropriate examples.
• Set a personal example - talk about the choices you are currently facing and how you make decisions. Imitation is the main tool for learning.
• When the skills of simple choices are mastered, teach your child how to make more complex decisions. Write down the pros and cons together, try to talk about possible consequences in the format "what if we do this? What can this lead to?" Explain that often our heart and mind give us different answers, and it is quite normal to listen to one or the other.