With the holiday season approaching, there are many opportunities arising for children to help people in need and understand the need for this giving, including food drives and other clothing drives. Allowing your child to participate in giving allow nurtures their personal motivator for generosity. We at ABC Early Childhood Learning Center want to help your child reach their fullest potential and develop a self-motivation for wanting to give.

Let’s take a look at how you as parents can help your child understand giving and develop the want to give.

Inform Kids About the Need for Giving

In order for children to want to help others, they must understand the need for their help. As parents, you must tap into your children’s tendency to have empathy, which is found in children at such a young age. Children are most likely to want to give and help others when they can see the world through their own eyes and identify things they have in common with others.

A personal connection to another individual is something that motivates all of us to help other people. Additionally, studies show that children look to interact directly with those they are helping. Being able to interact and talk to people can make children most likely to want to give.

Show Them the Impact of Giving

After numerous studies, it is shown that adults develop greater happiness from being generous, making them more likely to be motivated to give again if they can visualize the direct impact it has on individuals. Additionally, in a study that was conducted of toddlers, it was found that they also enjoyed giving other children a treat more than when they received one, because they were able to visualize their generosity. 

This shows just how important it is to expose young children to acts of charity where they can directly visualize the positive impact that is received from their actions. For example, taking your child to the store and allowing them to purchase food items and actually deliver them to the food bank together has a larger impact on them rather than just having them donate a few dollars.

Give Them Options

As we know, no one likes to do anything if they are forced to do it and extensive research backs up this idea as well. Additionally, if people are slightly coerced into doing something with the promise of a rewards, they will in turn be less motivated to help and serve others in the grand scheme of things.

It is essential to give your children options when trying to get them to become givers. People feel much happier when they are performing service that was self-directed, as opposed to doing required service.

We all want out kids to grow up to be adults who continue to give, even after we are not around, so get started today!

Get the childcare you have always wanted for your child. Contact ABC Early Childhood Learning Center at (513) 923-4300 or reach out to us at [email protected]. You can also ask us any questions on this easy online contact form.