Being confident doesn't mean being loud.
/As a child I used to think that being confident meant being loud. I was a very timid girl but I always felt a sense of confidence within myself. I just used to think that I was not confident and that I would never be confident because I wasn’t the ‘loud one’, the ‘centre of attention’, the one ‘leading the crowd’. Now I realise that it was all nonsense.
As an adult, I am still a quieter person but I am also a very confident person.
I see people around me now who are very loud but not confident people.
So when clients tell me the following:
‘I’ve heard that children need to show confidence in their 4+ Assessments and my child is shy’
or
‘My child is so quiet, they will not be noticed’
or
‘My child will not answer questions with confidence because they are too quiet’
I tell them this:
A child can be quiet and eve shy and still demonstrate confidence.
Here is the definition of the word ‘confident’ -
Feeling or showing confidence in oneself or one's abilities or qualities.
Confidence to me is showing your abilities in a way that feels good to you.
If it feels good to you to be loud - great.
If it feels good to you to be quieter - great.
No where in the definition of the word ‘confident’ does it mention the word loud.
So, if your child is quieter, perhaps more introverted, perhaps more cautious in new environments, perhaps takes a little longer to warm to new and unfamiliar people to them, you can still teach them how to be confident in their Assessments. How to show confidence in their Assessments.
We work on this together in our lessons.
And our students have demonstrated incredible confidence this year. It is evident in our results!
