Too much praise can harm children. Praising intelligence can make them less motivated in school, while insincere praise can be dismissed. Praising effort motivates them to learn and take on challenges.
While it’s clear that too little praise can be extremely harmful to a child, research indicates that praising children too much can also be harmful. Studies have shown that praising kids for their intelligence can actually make them less motivated in school, because they start to assume that everything should be easy for them to learn. So when they are faced with things that are difficult for them to learn, they either feel overwhelmed and give up or choose to study something easier.
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The type of praise a child receives is also important. Children over the age of 7 are extremely sensitive to insincere praise, and if they receive a lot of it, they begin to dismiss sincere praise and insincere praise.
Children who are praised too much or praised only for their intelligence also report being more willing to lie about their grades or cheat to get a good grade in order to maintain the appearance of being intelligent.
Praising children for their effort, rather than their intelligence, makes them more motivated to learn and even encourages them to choose to learn more difficult things.
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