The report isn’t all praise bashing though, the article explains that praise can be useful in identifying specific tasks or actions that a child has done well. By recognizing specific achievements children will learn to see strategies that can be applied for success and still allow for room to grow and to learn from their mistakes.

Po Bronson also discusses the value and mechanics of learned persistence in young children. The ability to “repeatedly respond to failure by exerting more effort” is important in developing children that are not afraid of difficult tasks or even failures. This trait can be taught by “intermittent reinforcement.” Research shows that if a reward is given every time a success is achieved when the reward is no longer present, the candidate gives up.

Children, Inc. uses many of these principles from early child development research in our programs every day. The high quality child care programs in our centers and schools revolve around allowing children to learn from their mistakes and build skills through challenging social interaction. Growing Sound products have been touting this resilience theory for years and have successfully turned this research into fun children’s music for parents and teachers. The social and emotional development of children is the most important thing parents and teachers can focus on and we truly believe children deserve the best.