For the next two weeks we’re focussing on making mistakes. Learning from our mistakes is powerful learning, so making mistakes is to be encouraged. But, unfortunately, many of us keep ourselves in the safe zone and avoid challenges, in order to reduce our risk of making mistakes. Our learning is therefore hugely limited. We need to actually encourage our children to take on challenges and welcome mistakes.

Does your child take on challenges and persevere when it comes to learning? It may be more than just a matter of being motivated or resilient.  Your child’s approach may be the result of having what’s called a 'growth mindset'.

This term describes how a child faces challenges and setbacks. People with a growth mindset believe their abilities can improve over time. By comparison, people with a 'fixed mindset' think their abilities are a set trait that can’t change, no matter how hard they try.

For children with learning and attention issues, having a growth mindset can have real benefits. It can help students (and adults) reframe how they approach challenges. It can also provide insight into what types of teaching and support can help students be more successful.

The concept of growth mindset has been around for a while. It was developed by Stanford University professor Carol Dweck. Dweck found that children who pushed through challenges held the belief that they could improve their abilities. Children who pulled back from challenges believed their abilities were fixed.

Having a growth mindset means more than just accepting feedback and being open-minded. People with this mindset take feedback, and create strategies for improving. They believe that even if they fail at something, they can still succeed.

What’s most important is to praise your child for the way they approached the challenge, not how hard they tried or how well they did. For instance, you might praise your child for the way she solved a maths problem or how she organised her project to get it all done.

This is called process praise. It’s the most helpful type of praise for promoting a growth mindset. It puts the emphasis on the steps your child took to get to the end result.