A growth mindset describes a way of viewing challenges and setbacks. People who have a growth mindset understand that even if they struggle with specific skills, their abilities aren’t set in stone. They think that with practice, their skills can improve over time.

It’s vital that you teach your child that the brain is like a muscle. It gets more powerful or weaker depending on how they use it. It lets children know that their brains are created even if they don’t have a ‘talent’ for something. With hard work and practice, they can still learn and develop their ability to perform or complete a task.

Mindset Theory

Carol S. Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford University, stated mindset theory to explain the effects of individuals’ beliefs on the nature of intelligence. It, in turn, has implications for learning and education. There are two types of mindsets are there.

• Fixed mindset
• Growth mindset

Individuals with a fixed mindset serve to be interested only in feedback on their success in activities to the degree of evaluating their underlying ability. They are not using the input to learn since they do not believe their success depends on their learning effort. Instead, they think that success depends on the level of natural ability that they have. Therefore, they dread failure because it implies constraints or limits that they will not overcome.

A growth mindset, on the other hand, associates success with learning. Therefore, the individual is not terrified of a flop because it only indicates the obligation to pay attention, spend effort, apply time to practice, and master the new learning opportunity. They are confident that they will learn the skill or knowledge after much effort and improve their performance. Every time you know something or repeat something, you’re turning on a lightbulb and sharpening your brain. Identically, exercise makes your body healthy by strengthening your muscles, learning, and practicing makes your brain strong. You’re very capable of learning things and supporting your brain, but no brain is going to build itself. All brains can be strong, intelligent, and capable of amazing things, but they need you to work, and you can do that brilliantly.

Individuals with a fixed mindset imagine that their characteristics (ability and other personality traits) are “set in stone”– how God made you is who you are. One’s qualities are fixed, not something that can be practiced or developed. People with a growth mindset learn that effort or training can enhance one’s qualities and traits.

Communications to children can influence the development of mindset. Suppose parents or teachers constantly seem to attribute success to inborn or innate abilities. In that case, children will come to develop a fixed mindset. However, suppose parents or teachers attribute success to effort and practice. In that case, children will be more likely to develop a growth mindset.

Pay more attention to the effort than the outcome

If you are going to give a speech, prepare it well, practice several times in front of the mirror. If you cannot do the speech better, practice more and try again. You kept trying various things under you got something that worked.

A grade that has been obtained with hard work, whatever that grade is, should always be rewarded before something is achieved without effort. It was a challenging assignment, but you didn’t give up. You kept going and working hard, and you did it. You can speak about the failures and challenges to the kids and provide them an opportunity to learn and grow !.

Conclusion

You can model a growth mindset for children by telling them that you can attempt new things. It provides them the confidence to challenge themselves without having a fear of failure. A growth mindset isn’t something that people are always born with. Kids and adults can believe that things that are hard to do now may not always be hard.