Helping your child build a bank of personal unique skills – Mindscreen Review – Part 5
*This post and the proceeding/subsequent posts in the series are sponsored by Mindscreen – an online mental health and wellbeing tool which guides children towards higher self-esteem, at home or in the classroom.*
In Part 1 of our Mindscreen Self-Esteem Series, I talked about how to spot the signs of low self-esteem in your child by using an online tool called Mindscreen. If you haven’t done so already, please read the following articles in the series first:
- Part 1 – How to spot the signs of low self-esteem in your child
- Part 2 – Lesson 1 – Why self-awareness is important to build your child’s self-esteem
- Part 3 – Lesson 2 – How to encourage your child to build positive beliefs and build confidence
- Part 4 – Lesson 3 – How to build on your child’s strengths and increase their self-confidence
In this article, we deep dive into Lesson 4, easySkills, which is about helping your child better understand what their unique skills are and how they use them. Help your child build a personal “bank” of unique skills they “know” they have.
Before you start
Please note – you need to purchase the Mindscreen Experience to access these lesson plans. Follow the link below to get 10% off your Mindscreen Package now.
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In Part 2, I go through the general structure of the lessons, so please check out how it all works here.
What unique skills are we looking for?
We’re looking for your child’s unique personal skills and help them discover how to use them.
EasySkills
I introduced the lesson with the purpose of easySkills which is to help the boys build a big personal bank of skills so they know what their unique skills are and how they can use them to choose the correct career path in the future.
My skills
I asked the boys to open their Learner Diaries so they could answer the first question which was:
Think of something you did recently that you really enjoyed
I.e. playing a game, working, following a hobby, at school, developing friendships, learning something new etc. The boys could write their answers either in words and/or pictures.
Both boys picked playing in a football match.
I then asked the boys to turn to the ‘My Skills’ insights page and circle any of the skills they saw in the shaded areas that they used during the activity of playing football. I asked them to try and circle a minimum of one skill from each column.
Aron circled the following:
Aidan circled:
Deep diving into the activity to find out which skills were used
I told the boys that we were going to have an interview, where I asked them some questions about the activity and they were to answer them on the spare piece of paper provided.
I combined the answers as the boys’ answers were very similar to each other.
The questions were:
1. Why did you pick this activity as something you really enjoy?
Skills, goals, tackles, saves. It’s fun. I like running around and kicking a football.
2. What is it that you liked about that activity so much?
Attacking and playing as a team and showing people using easyConfidence to stand to who I am. The intensity.
3. Was it because you used your mind a lot?
Not really. I don’t really think much when I play football.
4. And is it because when you’re losing you want to win?
Sometimes, but I prefer to play with my team so we all win.
5. It is because you want to be the best?
No, I will never be selfish, I would always play fair, I will always play as a team.
6. Did you find ways of moving the ball better?
Yes I can move the ball better now that I practice.
7. Did you learn a new technique?
I always learn new techniques every time I play.
8. Is it because you found ways of moving the ball around better?
Yes, I like moving the ball but I don’t like to be selfish, I pass the ball, so people aren’t annoyed with me.
9. Is it because you learned a new technique in the game and you learned new football skills?
Yes, I want to improve all the time on my football skills and techniques.
“Can you make this the last question please mum?” Aidan pleaded.
easySkills Activity Log
I told the boys that we were now going to go through the skills in their Mindscreen profile and in their Activity Logs they were to write a short description of how they used that skill.
This part of the activity was the longest bit and after going through about ten skills, the boys had enough. We managed to complete the activity log in the second session, but literally ticked through it. Some of the skills Aidan worked through were:
| Skill | Definition | Activity |
| Active learning skills | Learn by doing | New techniques while practising |
| Adapting communication | Being able to describe what you’re saying so that other people who are different from you can understand | Communicating with sign language |
| Analytical skills | Being able to think about a situation, study it fully, and understand what the most important things about it are | No I will always follow the rules |
| Assimilation | Being able to take all the facts and make some sense of them | No I know football very well |
| Auditory learning skills | Listening to a skill or task being described and being able to learn how to do it yourself, from what you’ve heard | Nope I know all skills and I know how to to di it |
| Big picture connections | The ability to look at the whole picture from a distance and understand how actions affect the whole | No I make my decisions |
| Consideration | Being able to take the feelings or ideas of others into account | Yes I communicate |
| Cooperation | Being willing to work together with others, without wanting your own way all the time | Yes, I’m not selfish |
| Creativity | Having the ability to frequently come up with new ideas, ways of doing things, develop a solution. Can be in any area: practical, artistic, theory etc | Rabona flick |
I asked the boys to pick two of their previously circled personal skills from their “My SKills Insights” page of their own Mindscreen experience® profile and invited them to open their Learner Diaries and complete the following statement:
“Two of the skills I used during the above activity are:”
Aidan picked – “Vocabulary” and “Team Skills”
“You use vocabulary during football?”
“Yes, the coach uses vocabulary when he shouts out football skills.”
“Team skills is where we work in a team”
Aron picked – “Perseverence” and “Participation”
Congrats, boys, these are your two main skills!
I reassured the boys that my two skills may be different to their skills but it didn’t mean they were any better or worse than theirs.
The last part of the activity was to get them to describe how they used these skills while playing football.
Aidan wrote – “Every time in games, the coach shouts out the vocabulary for football and we work as a team.”
Aron wrote – “By never giving up and by joining in.”
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Why do these skills matter?
I told the boys that people who really enjoy their job are usually happy. That’s because the job
they do is in tune with their skills and values and what they are interested in. This happiness on the job is more commonly referred to as “job satisfaction”.
“Why?” Aidan asked.
“Because they use their two main skills and values in their job. If you find a job that uses these skills, you will be happy. If you’re happy doing that job, it doesn’t feel like a job.”
Completing the Learning Improvement Measurement questionnaire for the second time
At the very beginning of the Mindscreen Experience, I invited the boys to complete a questionnaire to find out more about themselves – you can find more about this questionnaire in Part 1 here.
The time had come to complete their online statements again to find out how far they’d come after four lessons.
The results were very interesting – and unexpected!
Aron remained confident, but Aidan’s confidence went from a 10 to a 7.
Both boys seemed to also be less happy with themselves the second time round.
“Why is this, boys? Mindscreen is supposed to boost your confidence, not make it worse!”
“I don’t know what my strengths are anymore,” Aron responded.
“Because when I cry sometimes I say I can’t do it and then my confidence goes down,” Aidan added.
“Why do you tell yourself you can’t do it? The point is to tell yourself you can do it, remember? Self-belief!”
“I don’t even know what a CV means! I’m confused!”
“So, how do we build your confidence then?”
“I will just make it harder because it will give me more confidence. When I say I can’t do it, I can do it when it’s hard,” Aidan said.
“I have no idea what to study,” Aron said.
“That will come, don’t worry about that now. We are working step-by-step to help you figure out what you want to become. You have so much time!”
“I didn’t know what I was doing at the beginning, I just went ten, ten, ten, ten in the last questionnaire and I didn’t know what I wanted. I can’t just do that!” Aidan continued.
“I think now I know a bit more I have less motivation because I don’t know what I want and I’m not in the mood for working at school and at home.”
“I’m bored all the time,” Aron added.
“I don’t want to do school work. But I do want to get star of the week,” Aidan mused.
I don’t have any clear goals except getting star of the week and man of the match,” Aron added.
Oh, gosh! I didn’t realise that I had to work on the boys as much as I did! I think learning about themselves is making them more aware of what they can and can’t do and it may be overwhelming them. For the next four lessons, I’m going to concentrate on taking it a lot slower and not making them feel like they’re overloaded with work.
How did we get on with Lesson 4, easySkills?
The boys really struggled with the last part of the lesson where they had to go through all the skills to find out which of them they used in their football activity. There were 49 skills to go through and the boys’ concentration spans stopped at 10. So we had to do the lesson in two parts where we had to complete the last part of the activity on its own. Aron zoomed through his skills a lot quicker than Aidan and managed to capture the point of the activity. Whereas with Aidan, it was like pulling teeth!
How long was the lesson supposed to be?
30 – 40 minutes with one child or 60 – 80 minutes if you run the “My Skills” activity with two children.
How long it took us
Almost a frustrating two hours because the boys really dragged their heels in the “My Skills” part of the activity.
What did I want the boys to learn in this lesson?
I wanted the boys to learn and discover their skills and to understand how these skills could be used to help them pick out their chosen career/job path later. Knowing about yourself means knowing what you can and can’t do and that could be the difference to a happy professional future.
What did I learn from this lesson?
I received a shock after analysing the boys’ Learner Improvement Graphs to find that some characteristics had gone down. I get the feeling this may be because the boys are becoming more aware of their strengths and weaknesses and it may be overwhelming them a bit. It’s food for thought as to how I tackle the next four lessons, though, so I don’t end up pushing them the other way.
What’s next?
The next lesson we’ll be looking at Lesson 5, EasyStudyChoice, which is about helping your child choose subjects to study that line up with their own skills, personal interests, and what they value. This lesson will help them identify career ideas related to their study choice options.
Click here to read Part 6 now!
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