Children

Many people like the idea of a career that involves working with children, but it does take a special kind of person to be really good at it. If you want to be a successful teacher, pediatric nurse or childminder, for example, then you really need to have the personality and skill set that fits the role.

Often, being successful when working with children requires a lot more than simply the relevant qualifications. If you are serious about a career working with kids, here are the crucial skills to work on.

Patience: 

This is probably the most important skill that any adult who works with kids will need to have. It’s important that you are able to remember that children aren’t adults and that they feel, think and do things in different ways – often this can be frustrating or confusing for an adult. If you’re working with kids, it’s important that you have the patience to keep your cool when this happens, even if it feels like you’ve had to repeat instructions a million times. Losing their patience is the worst thing that a teacher, social worker or someone else who’s working with kids can do. So if you know that you can become easily frustrated, it’s important to start working on improving your patience now.

Communication Skills: 

Being able to communicate well with children of different ages is an absolute must, particularly if you want to be a teacher. It’s important that you are able to understand how to effectively communicate with a child and make your words accessible to them. While there might not be much difference between doing this and dumbing your words down, it’s crucial that you learn how to do it if you want to work in a career where you can inspire children to learn more, rather than completely putting them off. Taking the time to work on your communication skills and learning to speak to young kids without dumbing your words down will really make you a better educator. This isn’t something that you’ll learn from your master’s in early childhood education in Massachusetts, so it’s important that you take the time to work on this alongside your academic studies.

A Calm Demeanor:

When you’re working in a career that requires you to spend a lot of time around young children, it’s important to be prepared for the fact that accidents are going to happen, and you’re likely going to have to deal with some emergency situations. In these situations, kids will be looking to you for guidance, support and help, so it’s important that you are able to keep a level head, stay calm and take charge when something goes wrong. If you’re freaking out then the children will too, since they will naturally look to an adult for an example of how to act in a stressful situation. Being able to stay calm will make sure everyone else does.

Working with kids isn’t always easy, and there are many necessary skills that you won’t learn while getting your degree.