Self-Esteem vs Self-Image

Self-esteem is the awareness that children make about their overall self-worth. This is based on children's growing insights of who they are and being able to define themselves. For example, children become aware of the things they are good at whether that be organizing, gardening or playing a sport. These insights about what they are good at help them develop who they become and how they define themselves. The development of these talents help build a child's self-esteem. For example, my child has always been good at art so I helped her develop this talent by having her take art classes and having art supplies in the home. As her skills developed so did her self-esteem. Her realizing that being able to do art was an insight into who she is also helped her develop who she is. She realized one of things I am is an artist.

Self-image is the view each one of us has about ourselves  and it's continually developing. It affects the changing interactions between people and people's social and physical environment. Self-image is neither positive or negative. Francis Wardle established an interactive model that self-image is based on. The model is: the individual, the individual's interaction with the environment, the response of the environment to the individual and their interpretation of the response.

This means a child's temperament affects who they are, the environment they are raised in effects it, and the way they respond to the environment affects who a child is. For example, some children are better off with a nanny than in a child care setting because they as the individual child may have a temperament that works better with a one-on-one situation than in a child care setting. The environment of the child care setting may be too fast and cause a child to feel like they are lost. This will cause the response of the environment to the child to be one where the child doesn't get the one-on-one attention they need and therefore their interpretation of the response is, "I won't be taken care of here and don't feel safe here." Therefore, a nanny situation is the better choice for the child. The child's self-image of themselves saw a child care situation as an environment they wouldn't be safe or taken care of and contributed to this being a setting that was not good for the child.

As the child grows and learns more about themselves and develops a healthy self-esteem their self-image will grow and change along with it.