HI allison, I work with young  children everyday (birth- 6) as A Early Child Care Specialest, I have found communicating with children, and modeling is the best way to teach children self respect and to have a positive self-esteem. You are so right when you said this needs to be taught at a early age. We live in a cruel world and for children some are mean spirited and saying mean things is funny, But to the child who is recieving the riducule it is only hurting him/her in so many ways that only time will tell. Try giving encouraging words to children. Children in their early stages want to please their care givers, a good boost of self-esteem is giving a child a task and helping them to succeed in completeing, It also teaches good work ethic and pride in ones accomplishments. We are so busy to push the cognitive development in children that we forget the whole child and the importance of development in the social and emotional areas, So hang in there we can over come our past childhood experiences with alot of work and prayer. Good Growing emotionaly. Always be willing to give a child a smile It is the little things that count the most!!!!!!

cardecj

You're right. Self esteem should be taught at an early age, and the skills for expressing feeling should be too. I had a hard time growing up, but now I've learned to laugh it off. Things that bothered me back then I let go of and am a happier person. Have a lot of fun in Theraputic Horse Back Riding. That's supervised riding. the instructors and volunteer who work with us see a lot of depressing things, I have MS and I make them laugh, I started riding when I was a preschooler. I let go of the rough stuff and hung on to the good times. I still make people laugh when I recall funny stuff that happened way back when I was working as a groom at the race tracks with Thoroughbred Race Horses. I can tell some Whopper of stories that actually happened, but you'd have to see it happen to believe it! Hope this helps. If you want I can tell you one next time.  Kathy

My twin sister has Cerebral Palsy, and absolutely LOVES her theraputic horse back riding lessons. She's been riding for almost 15 years now. Animals are great therapy, and there isn't a better medication out there than laughter. I'd love to hear some of your stories Kathy. I'm sure I can think of some my sister has told me too. I'm allergic to horses, so I've only been able to watch from a distance, but I haven't seen anyone who wasn't super happy to be there. We even go to see the horses when there's a break between the programs, to cure the withdrawl symptoms :cD