helping girls develop confidence

[smilingcaz]

My DD is in Yr 3 and experiencing some of the typical girls behaviour of being excluded from the group. This has understandably knocked her self confidence which I am keen to support her in re-building. Would welcome any suggestion of books aimed at parents or girls to help us along this journey.

I don't know any books but I can offer some practical support. I believe confidence comes from taking on small challenges, succeeding and building on the success. What counts as a challenge is personal to the individual. The important thing is that they can say 'I did that'.... when it's something they may not have thought they could do.

A good example was Maisie who was one of my cubs. She has a few minor SN issues, quite a shy & nervous, and her family are very protective, understandably. We went on a cub weekend to a PGL centre. There was a terrifyingly high zip-wire in the programme. Poor Maisie shook like a leaf and we said she really didn't have to do it if she didn't want to. The idea is to be challenged rather than scared stiff! But she put on that harness, gritted her teeth & I captured the moment on video for good measure. You have never seen a child so proud as Maisie when she showed her Dad that clip... :) Her confidence soared.

Other kids I've worked with have got confidence from sporting success, getting a drawing accepted in a competition, standing on a stage in a play or singing with a choir. Anything they do where someone (besides you) says 'well done' really works and makes them so much more resilient.

Finally... get onto school. They're a lot better at tackling issues of exclusion/bullying than they used to be and they have a duty of care.