One of the most significant learnings in a child’s growth is how the child perceives things. The correct way to embed positivity in them is very crucial in their upbringing. Our behavior and approach toward their mental growth are what mold their personalities. Kids have brains that can easily be taught. It all depends on the way you adopt. The thing that can change their lives is not giving up on learning. This approach is called the Growth Mindset. Now comes the question of what is a Growth Mindset and how to teach kids to have a Growth Mindset.
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What is a Growth Mindset
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We all have some kind of mindset and attitude toward life. A growth mindset is one of them. It means never letting yourself feel that you can not do something. We have seen people saying all the time that ‘oh I am too old to learn a specific thing’ or a kid complaining that ‘I do not understand science’ and ‘I can’t do science homework’. These are all examples of a fixed mindset. You can easily see how it can stop you from progressing and learning new things. It can stop the development of a kid’s brain. We need to develop a growth mindset to help them grow into positive humans.
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How to teach kids to have a Growth Mindset
The bigger question is how we teach kids. It does take a little more effort and you have to be mindful of it all the time.
Here are a few ways you can adopt to teach kids to have a Growth Mindset:
Teaching kids how the brain works
We underestimate kids’ ability to understand complicated concepts. It is always a better thing to talk to your kids about how the brain works. You can simplify the concepts through word choice. Once kids understand how their brains are functioning, it would be easy to inculcate positivity in them. When you teach kids, it would be easier for them if they know that every action comes from the brain. When a child complains about not being able to learn something, you will have the option to tell the child that he can simply rewire his brain.
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Introduce them to different mindsets
While you teach a Growth Mindset to kids, it is always a good idea to introduce them to other mindsets too. That way you can tell them through examples how different mindsets impact their learning abilities.
Kids are brilliant when they understand something, they make sure to make it part of their actions. A little clarity on things helps them stay on the right path. They are extremely curious beings. When we teach kids to have a Growth Mindset we must answer their questions.
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Be a role model for them
Like all other lessons when you teach kids to have a Growth Mindset, first you should be practicing it. Our actions are the biggest teaching for the kids. They learn most of the time from our behaviors in different scenarios. If we react in a pessimistic way at different places the kid will automatically adopt it. The effort to develop a growth mindset in kids will also be harder as the kid would want to know that if it is that good then why don’t do not practice it? In simple words, you can not encourage a growth mindset in your child if you do not believe in and practice it in your own life.
Be real in front of the kids
Parents are humans and can also lapse sometimes. Do not try to hide your struggle to follow a Growth Mindset in your daily life. Sometimes in an attempt to develop a growth mindset in kids, we get a little too hard on ourselves. Make sure you are truthful to the kids. Tell them that it is not always easy to have a Growth Mindset. The failure tries to push you hard and you as a parent struggle too. It is part of how you develop a growth mindset in kids to inform them of all the true factors.
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Play with the right words
Another thing that needs to be kept in mind when you teach a Growth Mindset to kids is that you use the right kind of words. For example when your kid comes and tells you that ‘ i can’t do a certain thing; tell them ‘yet’. ‘You sure are not able to perform this task yet’ but ‘if you look at it you can do it. Tell them they can change the approach to deal with it. Try to develop a growth mindset in kids through motivations like
- Try some other way
- Mistakes help you learn better
- This may take some more hard work
All of this is the word of motivation without spreading any negativity around kids. When you use the right kind of words to develop a growth mindset in kids they understand it better.
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Complement you, kids
This is the tricky part. When you are trying to encourage a growth mindset in your child the praise and compliments are not the same as we hear every day. You are not supposed to generalize anything by saying that’ oh you are so good at geography’ instead complement their efforts to learn a certain subject or skill. This will automatically move them to have a Growth Mindset and apply the same methods to other subjects or fields of life. When you specify their ability to learn with one skill then you are teaching them to have a Fixed Mindset. To develop a growth mindset, you need to focus on the process of learning instead of the results.
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Do not label children
Labeling kids is always a bad idea and when you are attempting to teach kids to have a Growth Mindset, you can simply not label the kids. Labeling can be good or bad. You might say that ‘oh your friend is so smart’ or ‘you are not good at science’. All of this sounds harnessed but actually, it promotes a Fixed Mindset. To teach kids to have a Growth Mindset, you need to avoid all kinds of labeling kids. When you do not label kids it leaves a door of progress opened. When we label something, the kid who is labeled kind of accepts the label and can not think beyond it. It can badly affect your effort to teach kids to have a Growth Mindset.
Wrapping Up
Kids are very flexible when it comes to learning. We need to be very mindful of what we teach our kids. We must teach our kids the right kind of life skills. When you teach kids to have a Growth Mindset, you are playing a huge role in setting them up for a positive learning lifestyle. A growth mindset will help them through life and not let them be disappointed. All you need is to use the right approach to develop a growth mindset in kids. Praise them for their efforts to learn something. encourage a growth mindset in your child to broaden their horizons.
