Try, Try Again: Helping Your Two Year Old Develop Grit

Grit involves sticking with something until you succeed. It's another word for perseverance or resilience, and it gives us the strength to try, try, try again. Grit supports a "growth mindset" ― a belief that our intelligence and skills can grow with effort. Kids with a growth mindset thrive on challenges, show resilience in the face of obstacles and view failure as part of the learning process. For a two-year-old, grit might look like learning how to put on shoes, use the potty or use words when they feel frustrated.

Try the strategies below help your child develop grit and learn to persevere:

Use Process Praise

Process praise is descriptive and helps kids develop perseverance. Rather than simply saying, "Good work!” or "That's great!," share your specific observations about what your child is doing. This gives kids information about how they might act in the future. Process praise can be as simple as replacing "Good job" with "Good job sharing your toys." Here are a few more examples of what process praise sounds like:

"You are putting all the toys and books back in their bins. Thank you for being a helper."

"When your blocks fell down, you built your tower again!"

"Wow, you spent a lot of time figuring out how to put that puzzle together."

Embrace the Power of "Yet"

Every parent has heard a child utter in frustration, "I can't do it!" Help your child shift their perspective by adding the word "yet" to this phrase: "You can't do it yet. You are still learning how. Keep trying!" Adding the word "yet" helps remind kids that they are a work in progress ― that every skill takes time and effort.

Remind Children of Their Successes

Research indicates that children who hear stories about how family members overcame obstacles are more resilient in the face of challenges. Similarly, you can remind children of their own stories of perseverance ― specific moments when they worked hard to learn a new skill or stuck with a difficult challenge. For young kids, this might sound like, "I remember when you learned how to walk. Sometimes you would fall and cry — but you kept trying and trying! That's how we learn. We try and try and try again."

source:https://www.pbs.org/