Harvey Howard is the owner of My Gym Children’s Fitness Center in New Jersey. He is a certified special education teacher, elementary teacher, guidance counselor, and student assistance professional located in New Jersey. Here he explains how a bit of competition can actually help children in the long run.
Healthy competition is one major way to help children accomplish a little more than they thought they were capable of. Whether this is in athletics, academics, or nearly any other area of life, participating in competition—and feeling positive about the outcome—gives children the self confidence they need to push forward and continue striving to do their best.
For example, when a child sees someone else accomplishing a particular activity that he believes he can do as well, he will go after the goal. This is what competition is all about, no matter the age, and it is also one of the ways healthy competition helps push kids forward. It encourages them to continue trying until they can accomplish a specific skill or activity.
At fitness centers like My Gym, we reinforce the positive, as well. That means that we are telling the kids what a great job they did and inserting a lot of positive praise for everyone, regardless of what their skill level might be. Like I have said before, parents and instructors want to identify when a child does something positive and then immediately praise them to reinforce the behavior. It should not matter whether a child is the most athletic in his group or the least. What is important is that he continues trying and that he feels happy about how he is doing. What is the most important in young children is that they feel encouraged to keep going and participating in the activities.
That is also something parents want to watch out for when evaluating a fitness center program for their child. Does the center promote positivity for all the children, no matter how well they completed a specific task or mastered a skill? Is everyone a winner? Does everyone get praise, no matter if they win or lose? These are the things that parents want to be looking for in a program, because this is the kind of encouragement that keeps kids on the right track—trying and motivated.
Another thing I do is to encourage all kids to say, “I did it!” Saying that helps them associate “I did it” with themselves. They get used to trying something, accomplishing it, and then proclaiming it to the world. As you can see, that is the kind of thing that goes well beyond the walls of a gym—to the classroom and other settings in life as well.
So overall, parents want to look for fitness centers that promote healthy competition. They can do this by finding a place where every child is a winner—no matter their ability or skill level—and by choosing instructors who reinforce the positive behaviors in kids all along the way.
