Encouraging Effort, Child doing work
We can all get into bad habits and may find ourselves doing and saying things to our children that are not progressive nor have the effect we want. One of those habits is telling our children how clever they are and focusing on their academic achievements instead of just telling them to do their best and don’t worry about the grade too much. In this case, they may get fixated on working even harder and put pressure on themselves, then feel disappointed because they didn’t do as well as they had hoped. It can knock their confidence. We want to really be encouraging and motivating them in a different way, perhaps we could be recognising effort in children so they feel they are doing a great job and applying themselves.

Recognising Effort In Children Can Make Children Feel Great

Children respond better when parents recognise the effort they have put in (rather than the outcome).  Making an effort does not rock their confidence level – it helps to increase it as they feel proud of their efforts and feel like they have done a good job. Encouraging children helps with their confidence levels – which is key to their well-being. I am seeing far too many children who are afraid of putting effort in for fear of rejection (friendships) or not doing so well (in their work). This article Why Parents Should Stop Praising Children for Being Clever and Start Celebrating Efforthighlights what we should be saying to our children and explains why we should be praising effort and not giving blanket statements that really do not help the child grow or feel better about who they are.

Please have a read. The article has sound advice from two amazing professionals who also understand children and child development. Enjoy and let me know what you think about it.