Praise can have a powerful effect on children. Acknowledging their efforts and achievements can boost their self-confidence and help motivate them to keep trying hard and looking for effective strategies to overcome their challenges. But some kinds of praise are more helpful than others. In fact, research has shown that some kinds of praise can backfire and make them doubt their abilities.

Two Kinds of Praise
There are two main types of praise: personal praise and effort-based praise. Personal praise highlights your child’s natural ability, such as his intelligence or his talent of quick calculations. It’s the kind of praise parents often use to express affection. For example, you might say to your child, “You’re such a good writer”. But be careful with this kind of praise. It could actually undermine your child’s confidence.

Personal praise tends to focus on the talents your child was born with. If he believes he arrived pre-packaged with certain abilities, he might think he doesn’t have to improve in those areas. Sweeping statements about your child’s abilities are not as helpful as specific statements about the things he does. It’s better to focus on his efforts.

Effort-based praise emphasizes what he can control, such as how much time he spends in trying to understand a concept or which strategies he uses. That’s why effort-based praise such as “I am so impressed at how hard you worked on your science project” is more empowering than “Wow, you’re good at science!”

For Learners – Switch It Off, Not On Silent
As a student, you probably got the ‘phone lecture’ many times already. However, up until now you were probably switching your phone to silent mode. Here’s the thing, it doesn’t help much. To truly get that distraction out of the way, your phone needs to be switched off.

We may not like to admit it, but most of us waste way too much time on our phones.

Picture this: you’re busy studying for your paper tomorrow, but you remember that your transport uncle or aunty was going to text you today to work out plans for coming home this week, so you decide to quickly check your phone. As it turns out, he/she didn’t send you anything, but your cousin’s friend who you met on your last holiday starting following you on Instagram and you see the notification, and of course you need to look through their photos to make sure you want to follow them back, and before you know it you’ve spent an hour on your phone and you’re looking at the Instagram photos of their neighbour’s cat.

It’s no secret: our phones are addictive. But if they are “off-off,” they can’t be a distraction. They won’t stop you from getting your studying done, and you might even improve your physical and mental health. If you just turn off your volume or keep your device on silent, you will always know, at least in the back of your mind, that checking it is just one push of a button away. And unfortunately, that one push can lead to many minutes of distraction. When your phone is all the completely turned off, a “quick check” isn’t quite so easy, so you are probably less likely to do it.