How to Praise Children

**BellyBelly** · January 20th, 2010, 10:08 AM

Interesting YouTube clip:

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqo4c-FlFGE&NR=1[/url]

**BekZ** · January 20th, 2010, 10:50 AM

Wow Kelly what a light bulb moment!!!

Whilst I was there I also looked at Embracing Kids Failure and Teaching Gratitude..both excellent too

**BellyBelly** · May 12th, 2010, 11:24 AM

*bump*

What does everyone else think about this one?

**MrsFabuloso** · May 12th, 2010, 11:44 AM

I don't have time right now to read it, but I will. Just subscribing to remind myself!

**stepmum1** · May 12th, 2010, 12:00 PM

Great concept. Effort and the way the child feels about the activity is so much more important then what we think about it or what attributes they are demonstrating.

I love Alfie Kohn article as a follow on: [url=http://www.alfiekohn.org/articles.htm#null]Articles by Alfie Kohn[/url]

I believe that by praising "how smart/artiistic/fast/strong we are really manipulating children to only strive for that attribute. Which is what Alfie says in his 5 reason to stop saying "good job".

**megs** · May 12th, 2010, 12:29 PM

I just watched the clip, it was a light bulb moment. My eldest boy I'm finding difficult as he tends to need a lot of encouragement, is very sensititive and if he doesn't think he can do something perfectly he want attempt it.

Will have to look further into their research

**stepmum1** · May 12th, 2010, 01:09 PM

Dble post sorry.

**Jennifer13** · May 12th, 2010, 01:32 PM

Thanks Kelly! It's about praising the process, I get it!

**rosie77** · May 20th, 2010, 11:32 PM

This was really interesting Kelly - food for thought.

**Joseph Ray** · April 19th, 2016, 10:18 AM

Thanks for the video link!

I don't think we need to overcomplicate praise. It's not about all of the psychology and tests, it's about loving and caring for your child and giving them the emotional care they need, not tearing them down or ignoring them!

I do find the video interesting, though, how the kids are motivated by praise.

Praise them and teach them to have fun!

**mom_entrepreneur** · June 18th, 2016, 04:43 AM

My husband and I just recently read the Mindset book by Carol Dweck and we've been blown away. As I was reading, I immediately realized that I had a fixed mindset growing up. Mostly because of the way I was praised by my parents and teachers at school.

Besides praising the effort, we should also allow our kids to fail without any circumstances. In fact, some say we should praise our kids when they fail, because it means they actually attempted a difficult task.

One of the most prominent “promoters” of failure is Sara Blakely, a self-made billionaire and the founder of Spanx.
She shares how her dad encouraged her to fail. At the dinner table, Sara’s dad would ask what she failed at that week. He would high-five her if she tried and failed. To Sara failing means not trying.

I highly recommend reading Mindset book and [URL="http://bit.ly/1RZbcEp"]this article[/URL] describing 7 strategies for setting our children up for success. Scroll down the article to get a free report on how successful people were raised by their parents - very interesting!