All adults understand the importance of proper hygiene. Having these practices allows you more confidence in yourself, and helps you be more appealing to others as well. However, it can be difficult to help children understand and practice these habits. Try implementing the following tips to help your children learn proper hygiene.
Model Good Behavior
The biggest way children learn how to do anything is by watching others do it. They pay special attention to their parents. You are the responsible adult your children look to for a good example. This means that one of the best ways to teach your children proper hygiene is to practice proper hygiene. Take them into the bathroom with you while you brush your teeth and get ready for the day, especially when they’re really young. This gives them more exposure to the practices and helps them become more familiar. Your children are always paying attention to what you do and how you handle things, even when you think they’re not listening. The more you practice good hygiene, the more likely your children are to practice it as well.
Provide Rewards
Psychological studies have consistently shown that positive reinforcement is the best way to change behavior. This means that giving your children a reward every time they master the next step in personal hygiene makes them more motivated to continue. These can be small and simple rewards, but they will help your child continue to practice these behaviors. For example, kids often need a reward system for proper dental hygiene. You could do something like the following: if your child brushes their teeth and flosses every day for a week, you’ll take them to buy a new toy or game. You could also create bigger prizes the longer they practice proper hygiene. As well as the smaller weekly prizes, if your child brushes their teeth every day for a month, you could take them out to dinner or to a movie of their choice.
Check in Frequently
As much as your child might have the best intentions to practice proper hygiene, their brains are still growing, and they will likely need some reminders to do these practices. Even once they’re able to do these tasks independently, it can still be helpful to check in. A good way to do this is to create a simple sticker chart of the hygiene tasks they need to do every day. Allow them to draw pictures for each task, and keep it somewhere your child sees often. This helps them be able to be frequently reminded of what they need to do, and finding a sticker to fill in the chart acts as a small reward to motivate them. Other means of checking in can be to just verbally remind them every day or two to see if they’re keeping up with proper hygiene practices.
Proper hygiene practices are one of the big practices your child needs to learn to be a successful adult. It can be tricky to figure out how to teach your children these skills, especially when they’re adamant in avoiding them. Try out some of these tips to help teach your children proper hygiene.
Check out this article on what to do if you need to correct teeth alignment issues!
