Wellbeing Team Leaders:  Caitlin Noonan & Tyler Attwell

Email: cnoonan@stidrouin.catholic.edu.au tattwell@stidrouin.catholic.edu.au

MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING

Helping your child develop a Growth Mindset takes time, consistency and patience.  Your child will often require support to deal with failure and setbacks as they develop Growth Mindset strategies.  There are some simple changes that we as parents can make in the way that we praise and congratulate our children that will assist with this process.

Talent Praise versus Effort Praise

Most parents know and appreciate the role that positive reinforcement has on their child’s mood and self-esteem.  To be told that they did well at something immediately lifts their shoulders and makes the child feel “on top of the world”. 

The way that we praise our children can assist in the development of a Growth Mindset.  “Talent Praise” is where we praise the skill that the child is good at.

• Well Done! You’re a natural at that.
• Amazing! You’re the best reader.
• WOW! You got the best score in the class.

Talent Praise can lead children to believe that they are only good at the area in which they are “talented”.  In turn, they may not challenge themselves in other areas because they don’t believe that they will ever be good in the other areas.

On the other hand, we have “Effort Praise”.  Using Effort Praise acknowledges the process that the child went through to get a result:

• Well Done.! I loved how hard you worked at that.
• Amazing! I noticed how hard you’ve been practicing.
• Wow! Was there something that you found difficult as you completed this task?
• What do you like best about your work?

Effort Praise helps students to develop resilience and persistence through the process of completing a task.  It helps children to see the value of practicing skills and encourages them to reflect on these skills.

Making simple changes to the way we praise our children’s efforts, will assist the development of their Growth Mindset and lead to students who are more willing to have a go at things that are hard or challenging.

If you would like any further support with this, please get in touch.