# Praising effort, open mindset



## Girl_power (Aug 11, 2018)

Someone’s thread on learning disabilities made me remember these very good and worthy of your time NPR episodes. 

I think as adults even without kids it’s good to realize that effort is what counts and having a open mind set. 











Carol Dweck: Should We Stop Telling Kids They're Smart?


Carol Dweck finds that the words adults use to describe kids' progress affects the children's belief in their own potential.




www.npr.org













Carol Dweck: Should We Stop Telling Kids They're Smart?


Carol Dweck finds that the words adults use to describe kids' progress affects the children's belief in their own potential.




www.npr.org


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## DownByTheRiver (Jul 2, 2020)

What that brought to mind for me was how teachers used to say, You get an A for effort..


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## joannacroc (Dec 17, 2014)

Really interesting listen - thanks for sharing! Teaching my son about growth mindset helps a lot. His behavioral therapist introduced it. He has ADHD so writing is HARD and his verbal intelligence is far above his ability to put words on paper. So we worked with a growth mindset activity book to reframe his negative self-talk as growth mindset. This means saying things like "I suck at math" gets translated into a framework that allows for growth, like "I don't understand this concept yet, but I'm going to work hard and try again. I'll keep asking questions." Praising "focus and perserverance" is rewarding process and effort, not raw intelligence, meaning you can reward someone for being really resilient, and improving over time. As a teacher we use this concept a lot because I teach in a foreign language, and language acquisition looks wildly different for each child depending on their at-home exposure to language, and their ability to learn new language. Praising effort and progress helps a lot because it means kids who learn 1 or 2 phrases versus fluent speech are celebrated for improvement to 3 or 4 phrases.


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