Posts Tagged ‘encouragement’
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Be Thoughtful About How You Gush
The way you praise your child influences what theories they have about themselves. Stanford professor Carol Dweck has done some very interesting research showing real problems with constantly telling our kids things like “You are so smart!” or “You are a good artist!” The problem is that statements like these make our kids feel that they do well at things because they were born good at things—that that’s just how they are. In other words, they believe that their intelligence and talents are “fixed.” The danger with this type of thinking is that kids may avoid challenges, or give up more easily, or feel bad about themselves when they don’t do well at something right away, deciding that they just aren’t smart (or artistic or athletic or whatever) enough—that they just don’t have what it takes.
On the other hand, Dweck discovered that children who are told that they do well because they Read the rest of this entry »
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