Parenting skills are essential to the healthy development of children. While most questions about different aspects of child-rearing do not have absolute right and wrong answers, there are basic guidelines about how parenting skills are best applied. By nurturing, teaching and disciplining your children, you provide them with the self-confidence, character and abilities they need to be as successful as possible in all aspects of their lives.

Nurturing

A childs sense of self-worth and confidence must be nurtured through childhood. Parents must make children feel safe and loved unconditionally. Physical contact is just as important as expressing love verbally. By giving children a great deal of undivided attention, you convey to them they are loved and worth your time, points out the Baby Center website.

Teaching

The ability to teach children with effective communication is a crucial parenting skill. Parents impart knowledge, but they also instill a sense of right and wrong and a moral code. They must instruct children in what is expected of them. While much of this is a gradual process, its important to clearly and consistently communicate behavioral expectations from the start, explains the AllPsych Journal website.

Remember that your actions are as important as your words when communicating with children, and what you do should always be in sync with what you tell children. As the AllPsych Journal website explains, this prevents confusion on the part of children, and it contributes to your being seen as respectable, an authority figure and a role model.

Discipline

Discipline, via both positive and negative reinforcement, is an absolute necessity when raising children. Discipline begins at the earliest stages with routine. The ability to create and stick to healthy routines is an important parenting skill. Children are made to feel safe and are trained to do the things they must do with repetition and familiarity, explains the Keep Kids Healthy website. Routine also builds confidence in children, notes Dr. Peter Gorski, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.

The best methods of discipline are subjective and widely-disputed. There is one guiding principle for discipline that is indisputable, though. It is only effective when it is administered consistently, as the AllPsych Journal website points out. The Royal College of Psychiatrists reminds you to be realistic about what you will do, both as reward or as punishment, when disciplining your child. Follow-through is a key part of consistency and maintaining your authority.