Praising Process
Avoid praising the quality of a project, or the personal talents/traits of a tinkerer. They may be very intelligent or talented, but there are more important things, and praising personal traits can be harmful in the long run. Instead, praise process.
There are traits that we might want to encourage, such as creativity. The best way of doing this is praising the concerted use of the trait, rather than its simple existence. Don’t praise a child for being creative, praise them for really pushing their creativity. Creativity is a thing that is practiced and cultivated. It is there because it’s a muscle that’s been worked, and that is what we want to encourage.
Examples:
You were really focused today.
You worked super hard.
I like how you kept trying to find unique solutions.
Good things to praise:
- Focus
- Hard work
- Thinking outside of box
- Including/Helping other people
- Trying new ideas
- Pushing their creativity (as opposed to “being” creative)
- Not necessarily going with first idea
- Persistence
- Planning ahead, thinking forward to ideas for next time
- Risk taking
- Asking for help / Trying to work it out yourself (both can be good, depending on the situation)