Helping Your Child to Overcome Shyness

Being introverted and shy is a normal trait. However, it can mean missing out positive opportunities and experiences. When your children’s happiness is at risk of being limited by their shyness, the following advice may help them to overcome this feeling. There are three main tasks that can be done to assist your children in leaving behind their shyness. By learning what is on their mind, teaching them how to take things slow and being considerate about how they feel, you can help your children to cope with this sometimes invasive aspect of their personality.

• Ask your children what makes them feel shy. Perhaps they are experiencing shyness only while placed in specific situations. Is it to visit unfamiliar places that bothers them? Do they not know what to say or how to play with someone new? Discover more about the problem’s root and know better how to help your children to develop the skills to handle the situation.
• Take it one person at a time. If you find that your child does not enjoy meeting strangers, it is not a good idea to force them to do so. The emotional distress you will induce them will likely create the opposite effect. Rather than force the social exposure, introduce different people to your child slowly and over time.
• Consider your child’s reactions. Many children express indirectly to their parents that they are feeling uncomfortable. Maybe they are quieter than usual or hiding behind daddy's legs. Overexposure to situation that make your child feeling anxious may have consequences later in life. If your child has been introduced to someone new and is still highly uncomfortable after a few hours, do not maintain the contact.

Having a shy child is normal and most of the time it will be a simple phase. Shyness is a personality trait for many people. If your children are missing out on things they truly want to experience (common example: classmate’s birthday party), work with them on how to overcome their shyness by using the above tips. Otherwise, if you feel the timid trait is just part of who they are, you can rather focus on making sure their social environment allows them to be themselves.