WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOUR CHILD FEEL LOVED

One of my clients was only 13 when he ran away from home. “My parents don’t love me,” he told me.
“They love my brother, but they don’t love me.” I knew this boy’s parents, and I knew they loved
him, but obviously he felt disconnected.

Most parents love their children. However, many
children don’t feel loved. One possible reason is that parents aren’t “speaking” their
child’s primary love language. Love can be expressed and received in five distinct ways or
“languages,” which include words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service, gifts or physical
touch. If parents don’t speak the right language, a child likely won’t feel loved, even though the
parents may speak the other love languages.

While a child’s love language doesn’t change, by
the teen years the “dialect” of that love language may change. Here is how to figure out your
child’s love language or dialect at each stage of his or her development.