Parents are influential teachers. A Growth Mindset can help parents support their children in growing beyond labels, beyond stereotypes, beyond what they tell themselves to explain their life. This mindset holds them to high standards without making excuses when things get tough and helps them build on the right attitude to face challenges.
What is a growth mindset?
What growth mindset means is just a shift in how you view yourself. It’s the belief that your skills, abilities, and intelligence are things that can be developed over time through effort rather than something innate and immutable. It’s the belief that you can develop new skills or abilities with practice, learning new things, or receiving feedback—even if you struggle initially. And this flexibility in thinking is crucial to helping kids reach their potential.
Importance of growth mindset exercises towards an incredible learning journey.
The most significant part of adopting a growth mindset, besides the qualities like eagerness to learn and the amount of time spent learning, is being your own critic. Being self-conscious and feeling inferior is natural. The ultimate challenge is to be able to accept criticism for what it is and identify if it’s accurate or not. The growth mindset does not have short-term benefits in mind; it has benefits that stay with the person throughout their whole life.
The “mindset” idea has a lot to do with how you view the world and how it interprets or views you. With a growth mindset, failure is not seen as an end but rather an opportunity to learn from mistakes and try again. Just like muscles, your brain, too, needs to grow and stretch. But it needs to be done in a safe, challenge-filled environment as a growth mindset will develop resilience and perseverance.
How can parents encourage a growth mindset for their children?
- NO EXCUSES: One excuse is all it takes to give up. Tell your children to give up excuses and give in to a successful future! Parents need to take time to listen to the child’s excuses and discuss with the child how to overcome them. You can help them visualize what they will achieve once they overcome their difficulties. So, encourage them to develop a plan to overcome their obstacles.
- Let the child attempt on their own: It is vital to help your kid know the meaning of productive struggle. If the kid can take care of the task and figure out their problem, it will be good for them. Once they get into a productive struggle, it will give them a good feeling about themselves. It is one of the best ways of providing growth mindset training to children.
- Always say, “you can do it”: We are often introduced to a situation where we end up telling our kids that they aren’t old enough for a particular activity or job. Instead of saying “you can’t do it,” tell them they will be able to do it when they are old enough and learn how to do it. Always give them the hope that they can do what they want with the proper knowledge and resources. It is always good to encourage the kids because it can affect their future decisions if they are discouraged. Nobody is indeed perfect, and imperfections make us the way we are. So, with the help of embracing mistakes, it becomes effortless to see the right road to success.
- Steer them in the right direction: Not everything comes easy to everyone. Sometimes we need to put in our most extraordinary efforts to complete a task that used to seem effortless. So tell the kids that it is okay to feel discouraged over something they couldn’t accomplish but not give up. Giving up is not great; failure is just an experience that they should learn from. This way, the kids feel motivated and always think that their parents will always support them.
- Reward them for small successes: Rewarding a small achievement gives the child a sense of accomplishment. It is a great growth mindset activity to improve your child’s self-esteem and confidence. If you want to help your child gradually learn new tasks and improve, a small reward can go a long way every time they complete a task. Let them see that the hard work was worth it.
- Help the child set goals: Setting goals is important in our lives, whether children or adults. When we set goals, we get set criteria for determining progress. It helps identify what is needed to get to the specified goal. Basically, it also helps them understand their path to move ahead successfully without stress or worries. The goals need not always be academic. They can also be other things like socializing with friends or acquiring specific skills.
- ASK: Growing up has its own challenges. And it is challenging to confront the fear of failure, but the proper guidance can help you overcome this. It is up to the parents to have a positive conversation with the child to check how they feel. The conversation can help them overcome the fear of facing difficulties. It is a great way to encourage them to accept the challenge while making them feel comfortable.
Conclusion
Intelligence is not something you’re born with, but rather something that you develop over time due to taking on new challenges and experiences. So, to help children understand that, we must give them the right resources and support them in growth mindset exercises.