Whenever our child does something good, we always make sure that we praise them for doing so. But according to John Medina this should not be the case because researchers called this “appealing to fixed mindsets.”According to Medina, we should praise our child for working hard to complete his test and not just praising them for being smart.
“Rather than praising him for being smart, they should have praised him for working hard. On the successful completion of a test, they should not have said, “I’m so proud of you. You’re so smart.” They should have said, “I’m so proud of you. You must have really studied hard.” Big difference. This appeals to your child’s controllable effort rather than to mysterious, unchangeable talent. It’s called “growth mindset” praise.”
Let’s start being smart by helping our children do the right thing.
Key takeaways
- Praising your child’s academic performance without acknowledging his/her effort is toxic.
- Children who are only praised because of their IQ or being smart will have a hard time looking at mistakes as an opportunity for improvement.
- Parents should praise their children for working hard because this appeal to controllable effort rather than to unchangeable talent.
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