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Reading social cues is an essential part of being a caring member of society at every age. Sometimes, people learn these cues naturally. In other cases, they must be taught.
Children who struggle with social skills sometimes have trouble picking up on social cues, which can lead them to misunderstand people or situations. For this reason, it’s important to teach children how to read social cues.
Reading social cues can be taught through a series of activities. This article will discuss social cue examples and teaching social cues.
Reading Social Cues
Social Cue Examples
There are four categories of social cues–facial expressions, body language, vocal pitch and tone, and personal space (also referred to as physical boundaries).
Facial Expressions
According to the US National Library of Medicine, “The expressions we see in the faces of others engage a number of different cognitive processes.” For this reason, assigning one’s facial expression to their emotional state and intention helps us make educated choices about how we interact with others.
For example, if a child sees that a classmate is frowning and, as a result, intuits that child is sad, they will take their sadness as a cue, telling them how to interact with their classmate. An empathetic child may ask their friend what’s wrong. A child who enjoys making people laugh may try to cheer their friend up.
Understanding what someone else is feeling helps us know how to best interact with them. If a child doesn’t have this ability, they may act in a way that is perceived as lacking boundaries or being uncaring, when that isn’t the case at all.
Just like facial expressions, body language is an example of a social cue.
Body Language
Body language is the science of nonverbal signals such as gestures, facial expressions, and eye gaze that communicate emotions and intentions (Science of People). People use their bodies to communicate all the time. Sometimes we purposely use our body language demonstratively. Other times our body language reveals our internal intentions without our awareness.
When children are good at reading social cues, it gives them confidence socially. When they have difficulty understanding body language, they may feel they are experiencing rejection or encounter confusing situations without knowing how to communicate the experience.
For example, if a group of three classmates is huddled together and speaking in whispered tones with their faces creating a small circle, the cue is clearly that this group needs privacy. If a child steps into the circle and asks, “Do you want to play?” they will likely be rebuffed. In this example, the child did not do anything wrong but may receive a response that makes them feel uncomfortable.
Reading body language is important to social interactions and social-emotional development. Another of these critical social cues is vocal pitch.
Vocal Pitch and Tone
Vocal pitch and tone fall under the category of nonverbal communication. Such communication has been studied extensively in the context of impression formation because people’s opinion about another person is not only based on what a person says (verbal cues) but also to a large extent on visual and vocal cues (Sporer & Schwandt). When children miss social cues reflected in another person’s voice, they may fail to understand the relationship between themselves and another person.
Furthermore, changes in vocal tone can change the meaning behind what someone says. For example, if a teacher asks a student if they completed their homework, a student might say, “Yes, I completed my homework?” in a high-pitched voice and with an upward inflection at the end of the sentence. This vocal cue might alert the teacher that the student did not finish their homework.
When a child misses social cues in terms of vocal pitch, they may take words too literally and end up missing jokes or another child’s intentions.
Vocal pitch is a social cue example, as is personal space.
Personal Space (Or Physical Boundaries)
In general, we tend to move close to those we are interested in knowing further or with whom we are comfortable, and we move away from those with whom we haven’t reached a high level of comfort. When a child misses a personal space social cue, they may stand too close to someone they are just meeting, or they may choose to stand at a great distance, thus sending a confusing signal to a friend.
Identifying personal space is important for children for various reasons–including safety, healthy social interactions, building accurate impressions of others, and feeling a general belonging within their communities.
Teaching Social Cues
There are several activities teachers and parents can use to teach social cues to the children in their lives. The following three activities were tested over time, and when they’re practiced often, can vastly improve a child’s ability to read social cues.
Reading Social Cues Activities
1. Monkey See, Monkey Do
This activity allows students to practice eye contact and recognize facial expressions. The objective is for students to mirror another person’s facial expressions. For example, you can furrow your brow and frown and have your students imitate you.
Other ideas for expressions or actions include smiling and puckering your lips or winking. Once students have successfully imitated your facial expression, you can ask them how they think you feel when making that face.
2. Emotion Charades
This activity teaches students how to interpret emotions. First, write down what you feel on small pieces of paper. Examples could include happy, angry, frustrated, confused, or sad. Fold the pieces of paper in half and place them in a hat.
Divide the class into two teams. A student from the first team picks a piece of paper from the hat and acts out the word written on the paper. Their teammates have one minute to guess the emotion. If they do, they get one point. The game continues, and a student from the other team picks a word and acts it out. When there are no words left, the game is over. (Study.com)
3. One Word Story
This activity helps students learn to stay on topic during conversations and understand others’ facial expressions during conversations.
Have your students sit in a circle and tell a story one word at a time. For example, the first student might say, “The,” then the second student could say, “boy,” the third could say, “played,” etc. The game’s objective is for the group to tell one cohesive story.
If you are looking for creative and innovative ways to teach children to read social cues, we invite you to reach out to our team!
In addition to working with students, Soul Shoppe supports the entire school community through the creation and facilitation of dynamic programs that give teachers and parents the necessary tools to foster social-emotional learning. Find out more about Soul Shoppe’s social-emotional learning programs, peacemakers certification, and more by contacting us.
If you’re a parent or teacher, you know your small kids experience big feelings. Sometimes they seem to come out of nowhere, while other times, your kids have emotional responses that you can easily trace to some prior moment in the day. Regardless of how their feelings are stirred up, we must normalize talking about them.
Children who are taught that talking about feelings is healthy will learn not to bottle up their life experiences. Instead, they’ll learn to share them and process them. Just like adults, when kids begin to understand their emotions and name them, they have a fighting chance of working through their feelings.
This article will discuss talking about feelings and teaching your child to identify and express them.
Talking About Feelings
What Is The Difference Between Emotions And Feelings?
While emotions and feelings are used interchangeably, they are slightly different. Emotions are bodily reactions that occur through neurotransmitters and hormones in the brain (iMotions). Feelings, on the other hand, are a conscious experience.
Talking About Feelings Helps Children Process
Though emotions can be as unique as the children who experience them, there are generally four big emotions in which everyone’s feelings are grounded: anger, sadness, fear, and loneliness. We could easily break down each of these big emotions into resulting feelings, but for the sake of this article, we’ll focus on the main ones.
Suppose you are looking for a more extensive representation of the full array of emotions to help teach your child that talking about feelings doesn’t have to feel overwhelming or frustrating. In that case, you can check out our feelings poster.
The Big Four Feelings and Emotions for Kids
Let’s discuss the big four feelings and emotions for kids and how you can help your child identify them.
Anger
In general, anger is secondary to hurt, fear, frustration, or injustice. Sometimes your child will feel triggered to anger by one of these emotions, and sometimes they will feel all four of these emotions at once.
Anger is an uncomfortable emotion for both adults and children. It’s also an uncomfortable emotion to witness in another person. Anger for children often manifests itself as a temper tantrum, hitting, grabbing another child’s toy, or having an emotional outburst such as crying coupled with screaming.
It’s important to understand that anger triggers your child’s fight or flight response. Jaclyn Shlisky, PsyD, writes, “Anger may seem irrational, but for a child that hasn’t yet learned how to regulate emotions, it’s an immediate natural reaction to some sort of wrongdoing your child feels” (Parent.com). To help your child recognize and self-regulate when talking about the feelings and emotions that are stirred up by anger, you can do the following:
Identify and explain the feeling using age-appropriate language and materials, such as songs, movies, pictures, or facial expressions.
Teach your child different ways they can deal with their feelings.
Praise your child when they talk about their feelings.
Reinforce your child’s attempts to discuss their feelings by incorporating feelings into game time, car rides, when you’re sharing a meal, etc.
Using anger as an example, you can help your child identify and explain the emotion. For instance, if your child doesn’t want to follow their bedtime routine one night and begins to have a temper tantrum, you might say, “It seems like you’re feeling angry about having to brush your teeth tonight. You are crying, and your face looks like this. What can you do? I think you can ask for help or take some deep breaths and try again.”
Acknowledging your child’s emotions not only helps them identify their feelings using self-awareness skills, but also helps them understand how they can deal with them. The next step is to praise your child when they acknowledge the emotions they’re experiencing. Additionally, praise them when they decide how to handle that emotion. While at the beginning, you might provide examples of solutions for them, they will eventually learn to come up with solutions on their own.
Later, when their emotions have settled–this could be an hour later or even a couple of days later–you can reinforce your child’s attempts to discuss their feelings. You can also discuss the choices they made to process the emotions. For example, “Last night, you seemed angry about brushing your teeth. I was so proud of you when you figured out you were feeling anger and then took some nice, deep breaths before finishing brushing. You handled your anger so well!” This kind of reinforcement lets kids know what they did well, and it can help build their confidence during future moments with difficult emotions.
Sadness
When you’re teaching your child to identify and express emotions, sadness is one of the first you will want to explore. We all experience sadness at one point or another, and children tend to present sadness in similar ways to adults.
The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning at Vanderbilt University suggests playing the game Make a Face to begin conversations about emotions with your child or student.
This is a great way to open a conversation with a child who feels sad. The game begins when you say, “I am going to make a face; guess what I am feeling by looking at my face.” This game helps the child assign a name to the feeling and then allows the adult to reinforce their connection in the moment. Once the emotion is established, you can ask the child what has caused their sadness and then follow the steps above (identify and explain, teach them ways to deal with their emotions, praise the child, and reinforce their attempts).
When children deal with difficult emotions, it’s essential to let them know that while their feelings belong to them, they are common among children and adults alike. They are not alone.
Fear
In most educational materials on feelings and emotions for kids, fear is at the top of the list. The reason for this is obvious–just think back to when you were a child. Perhaps you had a fear of the dark, or big animals, or loud noises. Much of this fear is rooted in feelings of uncertainty and the vastness of “the unknown.” Often, children express fear in uncertain ways and this can lead to anxiety later in life.
If your child or student is having a hard time identifying and expressing fear, here are some tools you can give them to help them express it more productively:
Encourage them to ask for help.
Invite them to say the emotion instead of showing it. (For example, “I am feeling scared,” instead of crying, hiding, or throwing a tantrum.)
Relax and try again. (For example, if a child fears reading aloud in class, invite them to take some deep breaths and try again.)
Tell a grown-up.
Teaching your child to identify and express emotions allows them to connect with you and with others in a way that keeps them safe and gives them a greater sense of confidence when they are not with you. It also builds camaraderie and community because it teaches them that we are all in this together.
Loneliness
The final emotion we’ll discuss here is loneliness.
Research shows that children form attachments to other people right from the start. Children who have a secure attachment with at least one adult experience benefits and learn that connection to others is a positive thing. Conversely, when children feel disconnected from others, they can experience loneliness.
Unfortunately, loneliness in kids has skyrocketed as a result of the pandemic. As you might imagine, kids attending classes online or being taken out of their normal activities has resulted in an epidemic of loneliness.
Loneliness is a complex emotion but helping your child identify it in themselves and then process it, benefits them greatly. Bethany Vibert, PsyD, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute, suggests some helpful strategies to talking about the feeling of loneliness with your child. Dr. Vibert writes:
Ask open-ended questions. For example, if your child says they miss spending time with someone they used to see a lot, you can ask questions about that. “What did you really like doing with her? What do you miss the most about seeing her?”
Make observations. Sometimes comments are a good alternative to questions. So, if you notice that your child isn’t spending time with people as much as they used to, you might point that out. Then leave space for them to talk.
Validate their experiences. Showing genuine interest goes a long way. Do your best to listen without judgment (or visible panic) to whatever they have to say. Try also to avoid overreacting with too much sympathy or emotion, since that might make them feel even worse. You can show that you’re listening by reflecting back on what they’re saying (“It sounds like you’re having a hard time”), or saying supportive things like “That sounds tough. Would you tell me more about that?”
Talking about feelings and emotions with your children or students teaches them that their experiences are valid, they can manage their feelings, and that you care about them.
Anyone who spends time with children understands that play is more than a frivolous pastime. It’s the work of childhood. Work through which the next generation learns skills like effective communication, conflict resolution, problem-solving, and cooperation.
In this article, we discuss learning through play, cooperative play, and provide examples of cooperative games for kids that can be used in the classroom.
Cooperative Games for Kids
The Six Stages of Play
American sociologist and researcher, Mildred Parten, dedicated much of her career to studying the art of play. As a result of her research, Parten identified six stages of play through which most children progress. She was careful to note that each child is unique and can progress at different rates. Even so, the stages do tend to follow one another eventually.
Unoccupied play is that which we observe in babies or young children. In this stage, children explore materials around them in an unorganized fashion. The focus of this stage is learning how the world works.
2. Solitary play (0-2 years)
During this stage children are content to entertain themselves. The main skills they acquire as they are preparing to play with other children are new motor and cognitive skills.
3. Onlooker play (2 years)
Children involved in onlooker play are actively watching others. As they observe, children learn about the social rules of play and relationships–rules they will eventually employ when they feel ready to jump in for themselves.
4. Parallel play (2-3 years)
This play occurs when children play side-by-side but aren’t interacting with one another’s games. This stage does not include social engagement but it does teach children further social skills and gives them a framework for inviting others into their play in the future.
5. Associative play (3-4 years)
During this stage, children shift their focus from activities or objects of play to other players in the game. The focus of this stage is practicing what they’ve learned through observing others and building social skills with other children or adults.
6. Cooperative play (4+ years)
This is play categorized by cooperative efforts between players. Children become interested in both the game and the players. To this end, they begin to communicate desired outcomes and collaborate toward a common goal while understanding that each person has a distinct role to play.
The way our children learn to play is an excellent example of the constructivist theory of education. This theory is based on the idea that learners build on their existing knowledge to learn new information. As such, cooperative play is not only a capstone achievement for our students, it is also a catalyst from which they can grow into healthy adults and effective members of society.
The skills children derive from cooperative play that, in turn, provide the crucial foundation upon which they build future success include working together to achieve a common goal, developing the ability to problem-solve, sharing and exploring ideas, speaking and listening, and improving social, mental, emotional, and physical agility.
Additionally, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a professor of psychology at Temple University and co-author of Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children with Roberta Golinkoff, breaks down the skills kids need to succeed with the “six C’s,” which include— collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creative innovation, and confidence (NPR). Cooperative play helps children to learn these C’s.
Examples of Cooperative Games for Kids
Chief among cooperative games for kids are those that teach team-building skills. To that end, we’ve compiled a list of team-building games that have been proven to build both confidence and skill. Those listed are mainly cooperative games for the classroom but can also be adapted for online learning.
Here are our top five cooperative games for kids from various resources:
Set-Up: For this activity, prepare a tray with 20 unrelated items. For example, a spool of thread, an eraser, a juice box, etc. Once you’ve selected your items, create a document with 20 images of your selected items to put up on the screen. Divide your class into even groups.
Instructions: Set a timer and have each group divide the 20 items into four categories that make sense to them. For example, they may put an earring, a glove, a headset, a sock, and a smile into the category “things you wear.” Have groups work quietly so that their ideas are kept secret. When the time is up, give each group time to present their categories and the rationale behind each category.
Set-Up: Provide each team with four different images and ask students to come up with a short story that connects all the objects together. For example, the images can be a person, an object, a location, etc.
Instructions: Give students about 15-20 minutes to discuss and come up with a story, then present their story to the class.
The goal of this activity is to generate discussion among student groups about a specific topic or content area.
Set-Up: Faculty conducts a brief (10-15 minutes) lecture on a topic or content area. Faculty may assign a reading or written assignment as well. The instructor gives the students a set of generic question stems. Question stems help students to come up with or write questions about a text or topic.
Instructions: Students work individually to write their own questions based on the material being covered. They do not have to be able to answer the questions they pose. This activity is designed to encourage students to think about ideas relevant to the content area. The students should use as many question stems as possible.
Grouped into learning teams, each student offers a question for discussion, using the different stems.
Three-step interviews can be used as an ice breaker for team members to get to know one another or can be used to get to know concepts in-depth, by assigning roles to students.
Set-Up: The teacher assigns roles or students can “play” themselves. Teachers may also give interview questions or information that should be “found.”
Student A interviews Student B for the specified number of minutes, listening attentively and asking probing questions.
At the teacher’s signal, students reverse roles and B interviews A for the same number of minutes. At a second signal, each pair turns to another pair, forming a group of four. Each member of the group introduces his or her partner, highlighting the most interesting points.
Set-Up: The teacher selects a short video (10-15 minutes) on the topic of their choice. The topic should have some relevance to the lives of the students watching.
Instructions: When the video is over, organize students into groups and ask them to discuss the following questions:
What is my experience with [the topic]?
What are the major feelings associated with the experience?
Discuss how this affects our interactions with others.
At the teacher’s signal, the class comes together as a whole and one representative from each group shares the overall feelings expressed in the group. Once every group has been represented, the teacher can ask one debriefing question, “What are the implications of these experiences to you?” Or, for younger students, “How does understanding your classmates’ feelings about these experiences help you understand them better?”
Cooperative Games in the Classroom
As you plan to lead cooperative games for your students, be sure to choose games that are appropriate for their stage of development. Equipping our kids to engage with one another productively helps build healthy students, classrooms, and communities.
Every generation in recent history has grown up in a world where national and international news makes its way into the safety of our living rooms and around our dinner tables.
Though parents, teachers, and other caretakers might try to shield their children from scary sounds, images, and stories, the truth is that kids continue to be exposed to the dangers and stressors in our current culture.
In the 1970s, newsreels squawked out threatening projections about the United States energy crisis.
In the 1980s, the tension between the United States and the Soviet Union threatened war and the AIDS epidemic struck fear and panic.
Then in the 1990s, images of the Los Angeles riots, the Bosnian War, and the Oklahoma City Bombing repeatedly played for months on end.
As we are well aware today, the 2020s have introduced stressors no one could have predicted, and they are affecting our children daily. Masked children are familiar with the pandemic that continues to disrupt their classrooms, though they might not fully grasp the enormity of the threat. Some are aware that friends and loved ones have gotten sick, while others live in households that have been stricken with joblessness and even homelessness.
As caretakers, it behooves us to understand how we can identify the signs of stress and anxiety in children and become familiar with tools we can implement to help them thrive despite anxiety-inducing realities.
Identifying Stress in Children
Anxiety is a natural part of life. It doesn’t always signal a more significant problem–sometimes, it is simply a human reaction to a human dilemma.
For example, if your child sees one classmate teasing another, she may grow anxious. This anxiety could be an empathetic response, during which your child puts his/herself in the other person’s shoes and feels what she might feel if she was being teased. A child’s anxiety in this situation could also be triggered by the fear that the offending classmate may tease him/her one day.
Though these feelings are not comfortable, they are normal and even helpful. Just as some discomfort helps lead adults to pursue healthy, strong responses, they also help children navigate difficult moments.
Some fears are common among specific age groups. Some of these common fears include:
Strangers
Loud noises
Monsters
The dark
Bugs
Sickness
Dogs
Children experiencing fears can exhibit behaviors resulting from their uncomfortable feelings even if real danger is not present. When worries go unaddressed and unprocessed, they can become stress and anxiety.
Stress in children can manifest in various ways. According to Aetna, these are among the most common:
Avoidance of specific activities, situations, or people
A tendency to worry about what can go wrong in any scenario
Worries or fears that interfere with normal daily activities
Persistent distress despite an adult’s reassurances
Trouble sleeping at night or insisting on sleeping with family members
Physical symptoms, such as headaches or stomach pain that don’t stem from other medical conditions
When you identify these signs of anxiety in your student or child, use the moment to connect with them. You can seek to understand what is at the foundation of their concern and help them clearly articulate the source.
How to Help a Child With Stress and Anxiety
Help your child talk about what is frightening them by asking specific questions.
Often, articulating their fear or frustration can release tension in and of itself. For example, if a child becomes upset at the suggestion of beginning his or her school day on Zoom, you can ask them, “What makes Zoom scary?” Or, “What was difficult about the last time you met your class on Zoom?” These questions can help guide your child toward specific answers.
Once you’ve taken the time to help your child identify the source of their worry, validate the emotion they’re experiencing.
If a child tells you they’re afraid of the dark, and you’ve asked clarifying questions to pinpoint the specific fear, you can say, “I know a lot of children your age who feel afraid of the dark.” Then begin to help your child create a plan to overcome their fear. You may feel compelled to offer a great deal of sympathy or comfort to the child as you discuss their fear of the dark, but it’s best to identify the fear, validate it, and then move on to creating a plan. Too much sympathy can become a reward that reinforces the fear.
After you’ve initiated a conversation with the child, help them create a plan to overcome their fear.
If a student exhibits significant fear of heights, and you’ve helped them identify the fear and validated the fear, such as “I can see you are really afraid of heights,” you can help them plan a way to overcome it.
“How about today you stand at the top of the slide for a few seconds and imagine yourself having a great time going down the slide. By the end of the week, you can give it a try!” Helping children set these goals and then encouraging them along the way lets them know you see them, hear them, and you are willing to support them through difficult emotions and circumstances.
Social and Emotional Learning Helps Children with Stress
NPR recently discussed the importance of social and emotional learning to overwhelmed children.
The author interviewed Olga Acosta Price, director of the National Center for Health and Health Care in Schools. Price says, “Effective social and emotional learning doesn’t happen ‘only at certain times of the day or with certain people,’ it should be reflected in all school operations and practices. With disruptions from the pandemic so widespread, that kind of approach is needed now more than ever.” At Soul Shoppe, we agree.
The best time to help children understand and interact with their emotions–and the feelings of others–is while they are experiencing them throughout the day.
Children are still experiencing crises daily (NY Times). It is our responsibility as adults and caretakers to help guide our children through these tumultuous times by helping them survive and thrive. We can do that when we give them the social and emotional tools to face the dangers–either imagined or real–and grow the skills they need to identify, manage, and reframe complicated feelings.
Do you believe your intelligence and talents are set in stone?
Or, do you believe you can improve them with hard work, commitment, and good strategies?
If you believe you can enhance your intelligence and abilities, you have a growth mindset. Conversely, if you think your potential is finite instead of fluid, you have a fixed mindset.
Research has shown that children and adults can develop and improve their intelligence. The most critical factor is believing that intelligence results from hard work and study (Very Well Mind). Those who think this, enjoy learning because they know they can succeed with effort. This knowledge creates a positive cycle of perseverance and belief in oneself.
A growth mindset for kids is essential in helping them become resilient and lifelong learners. It also has other benefits, including improving overall health and development (Harvard School of Education).
This article will list and explain the qualities of a growth mindset for kids. Next, we will compare that to a fixed mindset. Then, we will share five ways to help children develop a growth mindset at home and school.
Growth Mindset for Kids
It is critical to help instill a growth mindset in kids. The work begins at home, where children typically spend most of their time. If their home is a supportive, warm, and responsive place, children can focus on their intellectual development (Forbes). Therefore, having a stable, happy environment accelerates children’s learning ability.
Children of all ages can develop a growth mindset. Here are some of the qualities we see in kids who have a growth mindset:
View feedback as an opportunity to learn (Mindset Health).
These qualities help children succeed in academics and other activities, even when faced with setbacks.
How a Growth Mindset Increases Intelligence
A growth mindset can increase intelligence in a few different ways. A research study by Carol Dweck from Stanford included studying thousands of children for 30 years. Dr. Dweck separated them into two categories: those with a growth mindset and those with a fixed mindset. She discovered after years of research that our brains are malleable.
Brain plasticity can improve and form new connections with practice while strengthening existing ones. This process of practice and growth rewires the brain to make people smarter; when students believe they can improve their intelligence, they put more effort into their learning. More significant effort leads to higher levels of achievement and success.
Additionally, we can improve the speed of the transmission of information by having good habits. Some helpful practices include using good strategies, asking questions, healthy eating, and good sleep schedules (Mindset Works). Consequently, we have more control over our abilities than we may have initially believed.
What is a Fixed Mindset?
A fixed mindset believes that children are born smart or talented, and no amount of effort will change that. This belief is incredibly limiting. As a result, children with a fixed mindset did not have the same results as those with a growth mindset.
A fixed mindset negatively impacts children’s resilience, academics, relationships, and other areas. It makes them less resilient because they believe they can’t improve. These children may develop negative thinking patterns and have a deep fear of failure or making mistakes. They typically avoid challenges, give up quickly, and feel threatened by other people’s success.
How to Teach Students to Develop a Growth Mindset
Teaching a growth mindset for students is essential for their success. Here are five ways to teach a growth mindset for children at home or in the classroom.
Have established routines.
Routines are important because they give children stability and structure. This predictable family and classroom climate supports child development and academic success (Forbes).
2. Give specific feedback.
Researchers discovered that the type of feedback children receive matters. When encouraging a growth mindset, praise children for their effort and hard work. Resist the temptation to praise children by telling them that they are “smart,” as doing so encourages kids to believe in a fixed mindset, decreasing motivation and achievement. (Mindset Works). You can praise children for their effort and work ethic instead!
3. Erase the word “can’t” from your classroom.
Take away the word “can’t” and replace it with the phrase: “yet” (6seconds). The word can’t is dangerous because it discourages children from trying. Instead of allowing your students to say, “I can’t read,” encourage them to say, “I can’t read yet.” This change encourages kids to believe they WILL learn to read with enough time and effort.
4. Model a growth mindset for your students.
It’s important to talk aloud while you’re going through challenges so your students can hear how you handle them. For example, you can say, “I’m struggling to finish this task, but I’ll complete it.” Such sentiments exemplify a growth mindset.
Other phrases you can avoid include, “I can’t do this,” or “it’s too hard.” Continue to show a growth mindset, and eventually, your students will emulate.
5. Teach children about the brain.
Teach your students about the parts of the brain responsible for learning. Understanding the mechanics of the mind helps children know that they can improve their brains with practice and dedication. Also, teach that it is possible to become smarter with effort.
Children can improve their intelligence with dedication and effort. A growth mindset allows children to reach their full potential and their goals. The most successful people are lifelong learners, resilient, and view failure as room for growth. Teaching this skill to children empowers them with the tools they need to have a bright future.
