You Shouldn't Tell Your Kids They're Smart, at Least According to This Study ~ health and fitness,celebrity news,fashion blog,beauty women,whole foods,quotes about love

jeudi 21 septembre 2017

You Shouldn't Tell Your Kids They're Smart, at Least According to This Study

As a parent, it seems obvious, right? You try to boost your child's self-esteem. You tell them when they do a good job on the soccer field or shine particularly bright at their flute recital. But a new study found that if you're telling your kids they're smart, you might be doing it all wrong.

Research published in the journal Psychological Science says that telling your little ones they're killing it in the classroom might have some negative "unintended consequences." The study found that praising kids for simply being smart can "undermine their achievement motivation in a way that praising their effort or performance does not."

So what exactly does that mean? Focus on the behavior you're actually complimenting when you go to sing your kid's praises. For example, if you commend your little ones on their effort, they're more likely to work at that pace going forward. But if you compliment your child by telling them how smart they are, they'll likely do anything to keep up that appearance, including cheating on a test, according to the study.

Researchers in China came to this conclusion by looking at 300 kids between ages 3 to 5. The children were split into three separate groups and asked to play a guessing game led by an adult. One of the groups was told how smart they were, another group was told they did well, and the third group got no praise. Here's when things got interesting: the teacher left the room after telling the kids not to cheat off the person sitting next to them. Psychologists found while there were some instances of cheating across the board, the group of children who was getting fed the "You're so smart" compliments cheated way more than kids in the other two groups.

The study suggests it's what type of compliment you're doling out at the end of the day that matters. So as easy as it is to drop the "smartypants" and "star student" line, stick to telling them how impressed you are with their work ethic.

jeudi 21 septembre 2017