Growth Mindset Parenting

Smart is something you BECOME, not something you are. ~ Unknown

Did you know that you can teach your children a mindset that will actually help them get smarter?  The best way is teach your kids the right mindset. Carol Dweck, author of “The New Psychology of Success” believes that a growth mindset is the quality that separates those who succeed from those who don’t.

What is a growth mindset?

Discovered by Stanford Professor Carol Dweck, Ph.D., a growth mindset is the belief that we can develop our abilities, including our intelligence, which is our ability to think. People with growth mindset believe they can learn and therefore get smarter and more skilled through applied effort. It is distinguished from a fixed mindset, which is the belief that abilities can’t change. People with this outlook tend to see mistakes as “failures” and quit when they don’t get the results they want.

Nurturing growth mindset in our children

At parenting Ideas, we believe firmly in the notion of developing a growth mindset in children. That is, remove self-imposed limitations so kids can grow. A child with a growth mindset will persist with tasks that are challenging and will not give up easily. They see mistakes as learning opportunities, not reasons to give up. The best we can do as parents is to become aware of the mindsets in ourselves and our children. Understanding our mindset can mean all the difference in how your child responds to failure, flaws, struggles, and hard work with perseverance. Then, we can monitor them and try to model and influence a growth mindset towards most things.

Teach your kids two powerful words: try again. Trying again is hard but worth it in the end. Show your kids how to try again. Then let them try and possibly fail, and try again. Then guide them to learn from their trying.

Even as adults we are still learning, growing and making mistakes. It is imperative that we share and model our own process with our children. Share with your children challenges you are having or setbacks you have experienced and some of the things you have done to overcome them.

Monitor your self-talk. Pay attention to your own internal dialogue about abilities. When you or your child struggle to do something, do you tend to conclude that you can’t develop the needed ability, or that you haven’t developed it yet? Observe your thinking and remind yourself to switch to positive thinking. Teach your kids how to swap out negative thoughts with more positive ones. Below guide can help you. 

Praise effort, strategy and action not results. Focus more on the processes of what kids do rather than results to develop a growth mindset. Kids need to hear comments such as “You worked hard to get that right!”(effort), “That was a smart idea to tackle the hardest task while you were fresh!”(strategy) and “You recognised the first few steps were the most important but then after that you were right.”(action). Providing your child with honest feedback about their performance. 

Cultivating a growth mindset is hard. It takes time. But it will help your children see growth as a constant state of being.

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