Self-esteem is an inner feeling: Sometimes it corresponds with outer reality, and sometimes it doesnโt.
Stanley GreenspanA new world of complex relationships and feelings opens up when the peer group takes its place alongside the family as the emotional focus of the child's life. Early peer relationships contribute significantly to the child's ability to participate in a group (and in that sense, society), deal with competition and disappointment, enjoy the intimacy of friendships, and intuitively understand social relationships as they play out at school, in the neighborhood, and later in the workplace and adult family.
Stanley GreenspanWe need to take a less narrow look at our childrenโs problems and, instead, see them as windows of opportunityโa way of exploring and understanding all facets of our childrenโs development. If we can understand the underlying developmental process, we can see a childโs struggles as signs of striving toward growth instead of chronic problems or attempts to aggravate adults.
Stanley GreenspanIf your child is going to develop a healthy personality with the capacity to remain intact and grow, she must learn how to test reality, regulate her impulses, stabilize her moods, integrate her feelings and actions, focus her concentration and plan.
Stanley GreenspanTo be motivated to sit at home and study, instead of going out and playing, children need a sense of themselves over time--they need to be able to picture themselves in the future.... If they can't, then they're simply reacting to daily events, responding to the needs of the moment--for pleasure, for affiliation, for acceptance.
Stanley Greenspan