THE BRAIN CHASE BLOG


Change Your Child’s Life. Teach Gratitude.

Posted on by Allan Staker

Do your children need a pick-me-up in the attitude department? Could they use boost in academic performance? Help them recognize all they have to be thankful for in life. 

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BENEFITS OF GRATITUDE

For those who consciously make gratitude a focus in their daily lives, the benefits are wide-spread. A study performed on over 1,000 high-school students revealed that those students who showed high levels of gratitude saw the following:

  • Increased appreciation for those around them.
  • Better recognition of the beauty of nature.
  • Stronger GPAs
  • Lower rates of depression
  • Higher outlook on life, in general.

Conversely, the students who were found to be less grateful and more materialistic had lower GPAs, higher rates of depression, and a more negative outlook on life.

 

HOW DO I CULTIVATE AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE IN MY CHILDREN? BC enginnering 6

You get that gratitude is important. But how do you teach children to feel it? A few tips from the experts:

  • Parents need to model this behavior to build their children’s gratitude. “It’s not what parents want to hear, but you cannot give your kids something that you yourselves do not have,” Dr.  Robert Emmons, a psychology professor at UC-Davic says. Sincerely show gratitude to others.
  • Spend quality time with your children
  • Provide your children time to voluntarily express gratitude each day, whether at the dinner table or before bedtime.
  • Point out things to your child they can be grateful for, like a parent’s job, or the food they are eating, etc.
  • Teach your children to work, either through completing chores or taking on part-time jobs, like mowing lawns, washing dishes, etc., when they are old enough.
  • Have your children write thank-you notes when they receive gifts or services from others.

 

MORE ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF GRATITUDE

Information for this blog was taken from the following:

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