Growth Mindset for Kids

Are you wondering how to encourage a growth mindset in kids? In order to understand how to take on the practice of teaching a growth mindset to children, first, take a look at the difference between the two mindsets; a fixed mindset and a growth mindset.

A Fixed Mindset in Children

A fixed mindset, especially in the area of academics, intelligence, and study dictates that it is what it is or that the status is fixed, unchangeable and with no room for growth or potential.

A Growth Mindset in Kids

A growth mindset takes on a different perspective. A growth mindset takes on challenges as a way to expand and grow. It also dictates that there is room for hard work, learning, and achieving.

3 Steps to Creating a Growth Mindset in Kids

Exercise Your Way to a Growth Mindset

You might be asking, “What does exercise have to do with gaining a growth mindset?” The answer is there is a different type of exercise you can do. It’s not the physical kind – it’s the mental kind.

When you exercise your brain, you give this muscle a chance to grow and expand over time. If you want to encourage a growth mindset in kids, you need to teach children to take on new, challenging things.

Once their brain sees that it can overcome challenges, taking on more challenges becomes easier over time. Once children recognize that they are taking on something new, fear can become minimized and new things will be placed in the part of their brain compartmentalized as something not to be feared.

Work Hard

If children have a certain learning capacity and simply accept that this is their limit, then that will be their limit. However, on the other hand, if they work harder, take on more learning, and then work even harder, they will begin to notice a shift. They will even begin to challenge themselves more often.

The harder children work, the more often results and rewards are acheived. This growth mindset for kids shifts their mindset to understand that the more effort they put in, the more effort they will get out. It doesn’t have to stop at a certain static place.

Teach children to work hard, put in more effort, and they can achieve different results.

Stretch Yourself

Have you ever heard a point of view or a perception that was astonishing and bold? Do you sometimes see how other people set the bar a bit higher, try new things, and work harder?

Remind children that Just because sometimes you may have to work harder, it does not mean you cannot be more successful.

Ask children to take some time to examine a certain area of their life, such as academically, and see if they can think outside the box, enter new territories, and achieve higher goals.

After all, anyone who has achieved a higher goal has probably done so by working harder, trying new things, and stretching way outside of their comfort zone; and teaching a growth mindset to kids can help them do the same.

10 Phrases You Can Use to Encourage a Growth Mindset in Kids

You can start helping children develop a growth mindset by encouraging them to use certain phrases. Here are several examples:

Never give up.

Mistakes are proof that you are trying.

You’ve got this!

Change your words, change your mindset.

Mistakes help me to learn and grow.

Dreams don’t work unless you do.

You can do hard things.

It’s okay to not know, it’s not okay to not try.

Hard work leads to success.

When the work gets hard, learning gets started.

More Resources for a Growth Mindset in Kids