Written by: Kamini Wood, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Nurturing a growth mindset in children is essential for their future success and life satisfaction. Children who believe they can develop their skills, talents, and intelligence tend to be more confident and see shortcomings as learning opportunities.
What Is A Growth Mindset?
Recent research on brain plasticity has shown that the brain is flexible much more than it was believed. The brain’s neural pathways can change with new experiences, strengthening the existing neural connections and growing new ones. A growth mindset can help children improve academic performance and motivation to keep learning. The term growth mindset involves our beliefs about our abilities, potentials, and skills. Mindset helps us make decisions, solve problems, and overcome challenges.
During her extensive research of students’ attitudes about failure at Stanford University, Dr. Carol Dweck developed a distinction between two different types of mindsets: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. Dr. Dweck believes these two different types of mindsets are at the core of the differences in our performance and life success.
How A Growth Mindset Works
Kids with a growth mindset are more likely to enjoy learning and seek opportunities for exploration and development. They see mistakes as opportunities for improvement and don’t fear taking safe risks. A growth mindset drives motivation and helps kids achieve goals. If your child believes that they can get more imaginative, they will set learning as their goal. Therefore, they will spend more time and effort, which will lead to higher achievement.
In other words, kids will behave differently if they believe their brains can grow. Children's feedback from their parents and teachers can significantly impact how they perceive their intelligence and skills.
Ways To Encourage A Growth Mindset In Children
Since a mindset represents a system of beliefs, it can be learned or changed. Using the following simple but powerful strategies can help you encourage a growth mindset in your children to help them succeed and grow.
1. Teach Your Kids About The Brain And How It Works
Help your kids understand the brain’s plasticity and flexibility, and explain that each new experience helps grow new connections and rewire their brain, making new learning easier. Teach them that they can improve their talents and intelligence with curiosity and effort. Teach them that the brain remains active and flexible throughout life, strengthening or expanding existing behavior patterns and adapting to entirely new ones. This allows the brain to adjust to new situations. Help your kids understand that if their brain can change, their mind has the same ability.
Teach them that they can learn everything with time, effort, and patience, and help them understand that people with a growth mindset know that hard work can help them achieve their goals.
2. Explain The Concept Of Two Mindsets: Growth And Fixed
Explain to your kids that a growth mindset involves an underlying belief that your intelligence, abilities, and traits can develop and advance over time if you put effort into upgrading them. People with a growth mindset have confidence in their skills and see mistakes as opportunities for learning and growth. Help them understand that those with a fixed mindset tend to believe that their intelligence and skills are fixed and cannot be improved with time and effort. They usually avoid changes in life and feel stressed out in front of the challenges, seeing mistakes as failures rather than growth opportunities.
3. Model A Growth Mindset For Your Children
Whether your child will develop a growth or a fixed mindset depends greatly on observing and listening to you. You are your child’s most important role model, showing them how to nurture growth mindset thinking patterns. For example, instead of saying, “This is so difficult,” say, “This will require additional effort.” Teach your children how to recognize and replace such fixed mindset thoughts with growth mindset ones.
When you make a mistake, tell your kids that you will not give up but learn from that experience and improve. Instead of giving up, show them how to use other strategies and problem-solving skills they learned.
4. Teach Them To Eliminate Negative Self-Talk
Or negative inner voice can strongly influence our mood, perspective, and behavior. Teach your kids to recognize negative self-talk and replace it with positive thinking patterns. Encourage them to integrate the word “yet” in their vocabulary and help them write down affirmative thoughts for when they feel discouraged. For example, instead of saying, “I haven’t figured out this,” encourage your child to write down, “I haven’t figured out this yet.”
Dr. Carol Dweck believes that the word “yet” helps kids not give up when faced with obstacles, boosts their confidence, and provides motivation.
How To Support Your Child While They Learn The Growth Mindset
To support your child while learning the growth mindset, encourage them to value the process over the results. Be a role model with your growth mindset and provide feedback and praise.
1. Teach Them To View Failures/Shortcomings As A Learning Opportunity
Teach your kids that mistakes and failures are integral to the human experience. Offer empathy and compassion when they fail, but show your kids how to reframe mistakes into learning opportunities. Help them to acknowledge their mistakes, reflect on them, and take responsibility for their actions.
However, encourage self-compassion and help your kids understand that mistakes are there to help them learn and grow.
2. Teach Them It’s Okay To Fail And How To Deal With It
Help your children understand and accept that mistakes are unavoidable in life. Let them know that it is okay to fail and bounce back. Teaching your kids resilience and self-compassion can help them avoid unproductive self-criticism, plan for future mistakes, and understand them as lessons rather than failures.
Kamini Wood, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Kamini Wood is the founder and CEO of Live Joy Your Way and the AuthenticMe® RiseUp program. An international best-selling author Kamini is driven to support people of all ages to heal their relationship with themselves and to stop outsourcing their self-worth. As a result, her clients become their own confident, resilient self-leader with healthier relationships. Kamini is a certified life coach, board-certified by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners, holds specialty certifications in Calling in the One®, Conscious Uncoupling®, NewMoney Story®, and teen life coaching. Also trained in conscious parenting, Kamini aims to meet her clients where they are, supporting and guiding them on their journey to where they want to be, both personally and professionally. Her mission: create space for each person to see the unique gifts they bring to this world.
