Parents and Praise By Health Day S., according to new
statistics. There's no question that praise can be confidence-
building but a new study suggests the words you choose may have
a big impact on your child's future motivation and self-esteem.
Researchers videotaped more than 50 parents using spontaneous
praise with their toddlers. Each family was taped three times,
when the children were around 1, 2, and 3. The praise was then
classified into two categories: "process" praise, emphasizing
effort like..."you're doing a fantastic job." Or individual
"person" praise.... like "you're so smart." The team followed up
with the children when they were 7 to 8-year-olds determining
whether they preferred challenging versus easy tasks and if they
could figure out how to overcome setbacks. While the overall
amount of praise didn't seem to matter.... the type of praise
did. Toddlers whose parents praised their efforts more than they
praised them as individuals had a more positive approach to
challenges five years later. T