• Definition

• Benefits of being grateful

• Strategies to teach gratitude to children

Definition

Gratitude is a feeling of thankfulness for somebody’s kindness towards us and an appreciation of the good things in our lives we already have.

What are the benefits of being grateful?

Practising gratitude can be very powerful and has many benefits. For example, gratitude is linked to happiness in children. It helps them to be more empathetic and kind, improves their self-esteem and relationships, and helps counterbalance negative feelings, which can have a positive influence on sleep and physical health in general. In children, gratitude can also equate to  higher academic performance, and  a study published in 2019 found that gratitude correlates to happiness by the age of five. 

There are a lot of good reasons to teach children gratitude and below are a few strategies to help them learn to feel more grateful.

‘Gratitude is learnt from watching and listening to those around us,’ says parenting expert Rebecca Lockwood. ‘It’s important to teach children gratitude as early as possible so they understand that we should feel content with what we already have and that we can feel whole with the simple things we often take for granted but are actually very important.

How to teach gratitude to children?

Children growing up with grateful parents show more gratitude. As children, especially between the ages of 0-7 are soaking up everything around them. They are like sponges, taking in all the information from parents, caregivers, friends and what they watch on TV. During this time, they can also learn gratitude if they observe it in others around them and through conversations with their parents and caregivers.

Gratitude comes more naturally to some, but for the rest of us, it is a habit to be acquired.

A programme called Raising Grateful Children has got lots of freely accessible online learning materials and it suggests children try a gratitude practice, based on:

Notice, Think, Feel, Do.

“Notice” is what you have to be grateful for;

“Think” about why someone gave you a gift;

“Feel” what it was about the gift that made you happy, and finally consider what you could

“Do” to show how you feel about the gift.

Other effective strategies involve gratitude journals, writing thank you letters, teaching children about the value of money, doing acts of kindness, a nightly ritual of talking through things that have made you happy, and talking about the simple things we already have and should be grateful for, like clean water, the nice food you had today, the covers on the bed, having friends, good health etc.  

The more thankful you are in life the more things you attract to be thankful for!