How Can I Help My Child Develop a Growth Mindset

19th March 2022

A growth mindset is important in achieving success and navigating the rapid changes in career and business. It’s good to develop it at an early age so that early advantages and benefits will accumulate. This will result in early momentum and a better chance at long-term success.

How can I help my child develop a growth mindset

First, what does a growth mindset mean? Mostly it’s about trying new things and coming up with ways to improve what’s already there. In other words, it’s about continuous movement and progress. With that momentum, exciting opportunities might come up along the way.

For children, this means encouraging them to solve problems and try new approaches. A more effective approach though is ensuring that their environment is supportive and nurturing. It also helps to have unplanned or unstructured experiences so that children will be free to explore. For example, in early learning centres there’s enough playtime where there’s no direct guidance from the educators. Guided instruction is still important, but unstructured experiences also bring immense benefits to child development.

If children are free to explore and that the environment is stimulating (e.g. lots to try and explore), they will further practice and develop their independence and creativity. Without many constraints, they can freely explore and experiment. As a result, they can further develop and practice their initiative.

This initiative is crucial in getting ahead and making progress. It’s also a crucial leadership trait because leaders and top managers have to act fast and set the direction of their organisations. Without initiative, most likely the organisation will get stuck and competitors will get ahead instead.

Having a well-developed sense of initiative early on can do wonders for your child. With initiative, your child will become a self-starter. This also goes hand in hand with your child’s confidence where he/she will be more willing to learn, try new approaches, make new friends and cooperate with other children.

In summary, developing a growth mindset in children is about putting them in a supportive, safe and nurturing environment. Children are naturally curious and active after all. Our role then is to provide the support and sustain the stimulation, whether at home or early learning centre.