Power words for kids: Power words | Parenting

Power words | Parenting

Words can be powerful for children. Some, known as “power words,” can even be a guide for kids, reminding them to try their hardest and aim to be the best possible person — in school and in life.

Let your child know that he or she can be someone who follows the four power words:

• Cooperation
• Compassion
• Persistence
• Self-control

At first, it might feel strange to use them and for your child to hear them. But if you work them into your conversations, over time your child will get the message that these words — and the behaviors they describe — are important. For example: “To finish a project at work today, I had to cooperate with the whole team.” “Whew! It was hard, but my persistence at cleaning the garage paid off. We now have room to park in there!”

Most important, use these words to point out when your child has done something positive:

• “You really cooperated with me today by helping to fold the laundry. ”
• “You had so much compassion when you helped your friend who was sad.”
• “You showed persistence by working hard on your homework until it was done.”
• “I know you were unhappy about not being able to watch more TV. But you showed real self-control by turning it off when I asked.”

Use these words often enough, and they can help your child act in the most positive way possible. Who knows, your child might even start saying them — and wow the teacher by using them in class!

Print out the list of power words — and examples of how to use them — below:

1. Cooperation

   What it means: To work well with other people.
   If your child says: “It’s not fair you get to decide how we build the Lego tower. I want to do it my way!”
   You can say: “How about you and your friend cooperate? You can build this area over here, and he can build that area over there. ”

2. Compassion

   What it means: To care about other people and how they feel.
   If your child says: “My sister is such a baby! She always cries whenever she hurts herself.”
   You can say: “Your sister looks like she’s really sad. We have compassion for each other in our family. You can show your sister compassion by asking her if she needs help.”

3. Persistence

   What it means: To keep trying to do something until you succeed.
   If your child says: “I give up! I’m never going to learn to swim. ”
   You can say: “I’ve seen you have real persistence before. You thought you wouldn’t learn to ride a bike, but you kept trying, and now you know how. You can do the same with swimming.”

4. Self-control

   What it means: To behave well and control your behavior, even if you’re sad or mad.
   If your child says: “I hate Roberto! He’s always taking the ball away from me at recess. ”
   You can say: “I know you’re really mad at Roberto, but you showed self-control. You didn’t hit him or yell at him. That can be really difficult to do when you are angry.”

the speech and language way

BAM!  POW!  ZOOM!  If you were a superhero, those might be your “power words”.  When you’re a toddler, your “power words” are the ones that are:

FAVORITES and FREQUENT

When thinking about words that might be highly motivating for your little one to learn, stick with what their interests are and what they may need to say frequently or what they see frequently.  For many families, teaching their child academic words like letters and colors and shapes and numbers is a high priority.  If your child is interested in these concepts and you teach them to use them functionally “the red car, the ball is a circle, you have two crackers”, etc… then that’s great!  However, when you’re thinking about helping a little one learn to communicate who has no words or very few words, think POWER WORDS.   When you use the right power word at the right moment, you may hear your child attempt to imitate you – and then you know you chose the right word!  It’s a Magical Moment.

• Start by making a list of your child’s favorite/frequent foods, toys, people, activities.
• Add some functional/frequent words like “more, no, yes, hi, bye, all done, mine, go, stop, uh-oh (yep, that’s a word)”
• Make a purposeful effort to use these words throughout the day

Seems simple, right?

When your child is playing with cars, say “car” many ways and many times – not in long, complicated sentences but just the single word.  Make car noises, wave hi/bye to the cars, and when the car successfully makes the jump you celebrate with “YESSSSS!”

When your child is eating, say “eat” many ways and many times.  Personally, I sing songs about eating, but that’s just me.  Give them only a small portion of what you think they will want and give them the opportunity to request “more” or respond “yes” when you ask if they want more.   Purposefully give them the wrong food or utensil and YOU say “oops, NO” (in a playful, mommy made a mistake kind of way).  Teach them words, feed them words.

When you are looking at a book, pick a power word and stick with it.  If you want to practice the word “hi” then just say “hi” to every person or animal on every page.  No need to read all the text.  If “ball” is a power word and it’s in the book somewhere then search each page for it asking “baaaalll?”  When you find it, say “BALL”.  That’s it.  No need for long sentences.  Focus on the power word.

In each example above, I wrote what YOU the adult should say.  Speech therapists like to call that “modeling” words.  YOU are saying words, your child is listening.  They are listening to words that are favorites and frequent.  There’s a much better chance they will try to imitate these words.

The same concept applies when working with preschoolers who might be working on saying specific sounds.

Recently I was looking for some words that have the “sh” sound and most of the pre-made materials included words like “sheriff, ocean, chef” – not exactly things this preschooler is going to talk about on a regular basis.  So, we had to make our own pictures for POWER words like “show” (to request a TV show), “shoe” (because he puts them on and takes them off at least 2-3 times per day), “sure” (because that’s how he likes to agree), and “push” (because he frequently needed his mother’s help to push something closed or to connect train tracks/race track pieces).  These words were motivating, interesting, useful, and highly repetitive throughout the day.  No need to carve out artificial “speech” time.  Just work on the words as you go through your daily activities.  The power words will give you plenty of opportunity to practice without needing to have 30 minutes of “speech” time.

What are your child’s power words?

For a FREE, printable version of this post, go to: FREE Handouts you can print out

Other posts you may like:

Toddler Speech: unraveling the mystery

Playing with…BOOKS!

Where are the WORDS?

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20 wise and honest quotes about children

Psychology

20 Wise and Honest Quotes About Children

March 1, 2018
505 614 views

Olesya Akhmedzhanova

Children make me happy. They are direct, energetic, kind and wise. They are great visionaries and tireless optimists. We chose 20 aphorisms from great writers, philosophers and artists who speak of our boundless love for children.

1. Without children it would be impossible to love humanity so much. (F. M. Dostoevsky)

2. Children immediately and naturally master with happiness, because by their nature they themselves are joy and happiness. (V. Hugo)

Source

3. To play and be happy, our love and willingness to do something with him is enough for a child. (Lorena Pajalunga, Let’s Play Yoga)

4. Every child is a little person… absorbing every sight, sound, smell and touch. (Tim Seldin, Montessori Encyclopedia)

5. Your child is only a child. And his behavior can be unpredictable. (Amber and Andy Ankowski, “What’s on His Mind?”)

Source

6. What a terrible world it would be if children were not constantly being born, carrying with them innocence and the possibility of all perfection. (John Ruskin)

7. When we have children, we somehow have to deny ourselves something, but at the same time a lot of new things appear in life. Yes, even a crib and a changing table! (Julia Cameron, “There’s an Artist in Everyone”)

8. There is no more solemn anthem on earth than the babbling of children’s lips. (V.Hugo)

9. The harsh truth is that being a parent is not easy. And scary. But your panic suggests that you care. And to be a great parent, that’s enough. (Amber and Andy Ankowski, “What’s on His Mind?”)

Source

10. Children are inquisitive, it’s their nature. The big and unfamiliar world every day gives them a meeting with something new and delightfully interesting. (Julia Cameron, “There’s an Artist in Everyone”)

11. The beauty of a child lies in the fact that with each child everything is renewed and the world is presented anew to human judgment. (Gilbert Keith Chesterton)

12. When everything around is amazing, nothing is surprising; this is childhood. (Antoine Rivarol)

Source

13. Children are one of the greatest gifts. But raising a loving, happy person in today’s world is no easy task for any parent. (Tim Seldin, Montessori Encyclopedia)

14. It is absolutely necessary for young children that life should go according to routine, and most importantly, that they should establish this order themselves. (Astrid Lindgren)

15. Every child is a genius to some extent and every genius is a child to some extent. (A. Schopenhauer)

16. Try to look at the world through the eyes of a child, and you will again be surprised at everything, like him. (Tim Seldin, Montessori Encyclopedia)

Retrieved

17. If our heart is full of love, everyone we meet will be our brother or sister. This is how children live – simply, naturally, easily accepting others. (Dalai Lama)

18. Children naturally have a desire to discover something new. Encourage your baby to observe the world around him and be surprised at everything around him. (Tim Seldin, Montessori Encyclopedia)

19. Every child is an artist. The difficulty is to remain an artist beyond childhood. (Pablo Picasso)

Source

20. Movement, image, color, line, fantasy – with the help of all this, children express themselves. (Jin Van’t Khal, “Creative Education”)

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Quotes about children – Healthy children

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Kids QuotesHealthy Kids2020-01-29T14:36:10+03:00

The best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.

Theodor Hesberg, priest

The best way to make children good is to make them happy.

Oscar Wilde, writer

Children are holy and pure. You can not make them a toy of your mood.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, writer

Children have neither past nor future, but, unlike us adults, they know how to use the present.

Jean de La Bruyère, writer-moralist

Children immediately and naturally become accustomed to happiness, because by their very nature they themselves are joy and happiness.

Victor Hugo, writer

A child not loved by anyone ceases to be a child: he is just a small defenseless adult.

Gilbert Sesbron, writer

There is no more solemn anthem on earth than the babble of children’s lips.

Victor Hugo, writer

A child can teach an adult three things: to rejoice without any reason, always find something to do and insist on your own.

Paolo Coelho, writer

A child needs your love the most when he least deserves it.

Erma Bombek, comedian

The first problem for parents is to teach their children how to behave in polite society; the second is to find this decent society.

Robert Orben, writer

A child who suffers less abuse grows up to be a more self-conscious person.

Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky, philosopher-materialist

Little children have much in common with intellectuals. Their noise is annoying, their silence suspicious.

Gabriel Laub, writer

Cherish your children’s tears so they can shed them on your grave.

Pythagoras, philosopher

A mother’s heart is an abyss, at the bottom of which there is always forgiveness.

Honore de Balzac, writer

Everything that is beautiful in a person – from the rays of the sun and from mother’s milk – that is what saturates us with love for life.

Maxim Gorky, writer

Mother’s love is omnipotent, primitive, selfish, and at the same time selfless.

She doesn’t depend on anything.

Theodore Dreiser, writer

Mother’s hands are made of tenderness – children sleep peacefully on them.

Victor Hugo, writer

Mother is the name of God on the lips and in the hearts of little children.

William Thackeray, writer

Don’t raise your kids, they’ll look like you anyway. Educate yourself.

English proverb

Raising children, today’s parents educate the future history of our country, and hence the history of the world.

Anton Semenovich Makarenko, teacher and writer

Be yourself both a man and a baby to teach a child.

Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky, writer

Your children are not your children. They come through you, not out of you… You can give a home to their bodies, but not their souls. You are but bows, from which living arrows are sent forward, which you call your children.

Gibran Khalil Gibran, philosopher

If only parents could imagine how annoying they are to their children!

George Bernard Shaw, playwright

The first sensations of childhood are pleasure and pain, and thanks to them, virtue and vice first appear in the soul.

Plato, philosopher

Every person is always someone’s child.

Pierre de Beaumarchais, playwright

Raising a child requires more penetrating thinking, deeper wisdom than governing a state.

William Ellery Channing, writer

If… punish a child for bad things and reward for good things, then he will do good for the sake of profit.

Immanuel Kant, philosopher

Parents are the bone on which children sharpen their teeth.

Peter Ustinov, actor

Before I got married, I had six theories about parenting; Now I have six children and not a single theory.

John Wilmot, poet

If your child doesn’t care about anything, then nothing shines for him.

Konstantin Alexandrovich Kushner, teacher and historian

All the charm of children for us, their special, human charm is inextricably linked with the hope that they will not be like us, will be better than us.

Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov, philosopher

Parent: a position that requires endless patience to fulfill it, and does not require any patience to receive it.

Leonard Levinson, writer

Talking to a child, captivating him is much more difficult than winning an election. But the reward we receive is greater.

Sidonie-Gabriel Colette, writer and screenwriter

Men love women, women love children, children love hamsters, hamsters don’t like anyone.

Eilis Ellis, writer

I don’t think my children were deprived of much as a child, but I believe I was deprived of much as a mother.

Eilis Ellis, writer

When children stop asking questions, their parents ask a lot of questions.

Leonid Semyonovich Sukhorukov, writer

An honest child loves not his father and mother, but tubes with cream.

Don-Aminado, poet and satirist

Children must be taught not what makes children, but what doesn’t.

Arkady Filippovich Davidovich, writer

Children who are not loved become adults who cannot love.

Pearl Buck, writer and human rights activist

It is still unknown what is worse, childlessness or fatherlessness.

Konstantin Alexandrovich Kushner, teacher and historian

Children understand their fathers when they become grandfathers.

Arkady Filippovich Davidovich, writer

If there is one child in a family, then he is an egoist. If there are 10 children in the family, then the egoist is the father.

Confucius, philosopher

A child’s imagination is wider than an adult’s because it is still free from the realities of life.

Leonid Semenovich Sukhorukov, writer

If you have children, make sure they go where they should.

Abraham Arden Brill, psychoanalyst

Too obedient sons never achieve much.

Abraham Arden Brill, psychoanalyst

Children give their debt to their parents to their children.

Ilya Nikolaevich Shevelev, scientist

You will never be able to create wise men if you kill naughty children.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, philosopher

Our children are like our money: no matter how big, they always seem small.

Konstantin Semyonovich Melikhan, satirist

Children listen most attentively when they are not talking to them.

Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady

“It happens,” weak parents say about their children’s misdeeds.

No, it doesn’t happen – it develops.

Maria von Ebner-Eschenbach, writer

Look at my children. My former freshness is alive in them. They are the justification for my old age.

William Shakespeare, writer

Children are anchors that keep their mother alive.

Sophocles, philosopher

A child is a mirror of the parents’ actions.

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, teacher

Without children it would be impossible to love humanity so much.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, writer

The favorite pastime of men, children and other animals is fighting…

Jonathan Swift, writer

Remember that your children will treat you the same way you treat your parents.

Thales of Miletus, philosopher

Adults should not be angry with children, because this does not correct, but spoils.

Janusz Korczak, teacher

Parents least of all forgive their children for the vices that they themselves instilled in them.