Bookmark This Page

Delicious Google Bookmarks Stumbleupon Digg BlinkList Blogmarks Facebook Ma.gnolia Reddit Twitter Yahoo My Web Livejournal

 

Sports Motivation for Children

With childhood obesity on the rise it is important for parents to instill sports motivation in their children early on. Here are some ways that you can help your child love sports from the age of six months and on into adulthood.

Baby Sports

Even at the age of six months, you can give your child sports motivation and the desire to play sport later in life.

One good activity to start with is playing with balls. The ball should be very soft, but try to avoid foam balls, babies have a habit of chewing off small chunks of the foam and this could be a choking hazard. Start by rolling the ball to your baby and encourage him or her to roll it back to you. After baby has this mastered you can try to teach him or her to throw the ball to you.

As your baby becomes a toddler you can teach him or her to catch the ball. Show your child how to place their arms out in front of them, hands open and flat, then gently toss the ball to them. It will take a lot of your patience to teach this skill, but don’t worry, toddler s usually only get discouraged if their parents do. Keep the game fun and full of praise like, “Oh! You almost caught it!” or, “Try again!”

Praise

Many parents worry that if they lavish too much praise on their child then the kid will get a false sense of accomplishment. In some ways this might be true, but praise is the biggest key to giving your child sports motivation. If a child knows that they will get praise from doing well at a sport then they will love to do it, especially at a young age.

Make your praise appropriate to the situation for the best sports motivation. If your child struck out at the plate then don’t tell them they did a good job, they won’t believe you because they know they didn’t. Your praise will be worthless if they don’t believe you. Instead say, “That’s okay, Jenny! You tried your best and you’ll do better next time.” This statement tells the child that it is okay to fail as long as they tried their best and gives them hope for the next time. This encouragement keeps children from giving up and drives them to try harder and play better. The perfect sports motivation!