Parents always thrive to find the best techniques to develop their children’ skills since birth; whether their motor skills or cognitive skills, and this is a good thing. As brain training experts we always encourage parents to start with their kids at an early age, and by an early age, we mean kids under the age of three years. The brain of children under three is extremely active, with neurons firing nonstop! Increasing their intelligence and skills can be simply done by talking and reading to them, starting up conversations, drawing, playing puzzles, singing, coloring and many more play activities.  Children at this young age are constantly developing their skills as they tend to discover and investigate everything around them; their curiosity helps them understand even normal or mundane things. My number one tip for you as a parent is to let them do so. In many cases, we tend to overprotect our children, or worry about a messy house, and not allow them to do many things that may help them learn and develop their skills. The number one skill you can help develop in your child at this age, which would be extremely beneficial when your child is a grown-up, is the Growth Mindset. I call it a skill rather than a mindset because it takes as much time and effort to have as any other skill.

What is Growth Mindset?

Growth mindset is simply the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed. The opposite of this...is a Fixed Mindset, in which one believes that their skills are fixed; they are either smart, talented or good at something, or they are not! Hence, the growth mindset believes that practice and effort can result in talent.

What are the benefits of Growth Mindset?

• The Growth Mindset helps the child transform any difficult situation into a possibility.

Instead of being stuck and giving up on hard things and repeating the famous, “this is too hard” phrase, the growth mindset would change the held belief of, “it’s too hard” into a more positive “I’ll try my best” attitude. This attitude will help your child look at mistakes as lessons and learning opportunities, they would aim to achieve better on their own when they are older and accept working hard as a way to handle situations instead of a burden as many of our children think.

• The Growth Mindset helps children understand that our brain works very similar to our muscles; with hard work and practice it will grow.

  Whenever we try something hard and fail, we learn. Practicing and failing will help our brains grow and expand our abilities. Studies have shown that those who try even after they fail are much more expected to excel and succeed in life than those who don’t.

We always tend to tell our children that they are smart, or gifted, and so on. To them this will not encourage effort, but rather, focus on the idea that they were born like this. The Growth Mindset discourages such praise and focuses on praising effort and trials hence praising the process rather than the outcome. Whenever you see your child demonstrating such mindset, PRAISE! Make sure you are praising your child whenever they display the Growth Mindset without adding the “Why can’t you always be like that” sentence at the end! Our whole brain training programs are based on this mindset, growing and improving the brain needs practice and effort, that’s what we try to build in each of our students!