parent by design:
day 16: help your child to develop a growth mindset
"Whether you think you can or you can't... you're right."
- Henry Ford
what is a 'growth mindset'?
Growth mindset is a phrase coined by Dr. Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, after studying the behaviour of thousands of children; Dweck uses the word 'mindset' to describe a particular set of beliefs that people have around learning and intelligence. Below we outline some of the differences between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset:
why is it important
As you can tell from the above distinctions, a growth mindset is a fundamental building block to success, in school, in relationships, in work, in life itself.
Whatever your child chooses to do, if they posses growth mindset attributes then they are more likely to succeed than not. They will bounce back from failure more rapidly, they will try new things, work hard to improve, and be more motivated to do well.
The good news is that you can help your child to develop a more 'growth mindset' approach, even if they are closer to the fixed mindset end of the spectrum.
how do we teach growth mindset
We do 3 things to help our kids to develop a growth mindset.
- 1Teach them our 123 technique.
- 2Teach them the power of words.
- 3Teach them to embrace failure.
We'll show you how to do number 1 and 2 in this module, and number 3 is dealt with in module 18.
the 123 technique
We made a little video that you can show your child to introduce this technique.
Our 123 technique will help your child to:
- 1Look at any situation and no matter how difficult or challenging it is, recognise that there is at least ONE positive
- 2By thinking of TWO things they learned your child will recognise that ALL situations are an opportunity for them to learn something.
- 3By thinking of THREE things they could do differently next time they get their brain into solving problem mode. This also helps with their HOTS as we discussed in day 10. The other thing that this does is that by thinking of potential solutions, your child is creating better INPUTS, so that when this situation happens again, mentally they will have more choices in the moment as to which action to take.
To keep the 123 technique front of mind, we've created a printable for your wall. Put it where it can be seen and every time your child has a challenging experience, ask them to do their 123.
the power of words
The second thing we do to help our kids to develop a growth mindset is help them to use the right words.
The language we use is very powerful, words act as instructions to our brains.
And, the brain is very well behaved- it does exactly what you tell it to.
We have identified a number of phrases and words that aren't very useful when it comes to helping our kids to develop a growth mindset and we have created alternative, more growth mindset friendly words and phrases.
We've created a printable that you can stick on your wall.
Whenever you hear your child say one of the fixed mindset words or phrases, see if you can steer them towards using a growth mindset work or phrase instead.