Thoughts on Growth Mindset

If I had to sum up the eight years I spent working in pediatric neurology in one sentence it would be this: The brains of children are resilient and awe-inspiring. It is an incredible thing to watch a child recover from a brain trauma or surgery and literally witness their brains reinforcing old pathways and creating new ones. This does not mean that these stories don’t also include loss and grit. Pain and resilience often exist together. But it does mean that the brains of children have an elasticity to them that is incredible.

Years after I’d transitioned into a new job, I stumbled upon the idea of growth mindset. It felt like such a needed gift at the time. I felt in over my head with my young twins — we were struggling with perfectionism and rigid thinking patterns (both theirs and my own!) and I was feeling like I was not the mom I wanted to be. The concepts of growth mindset were an intersection of where I’d been in my work life and where I wanted to head in my parenting.

It is disheartening and overwhelming to hear your child say things like, “I just am not good at that and I never will be.” I often felt stuck between wanting to argue with my children and wanting to connect with them. Mostly I wished that they could see themselves as I did: capable and incredible.

Growth Mindset is the idea that our brains are not stuck but are able to learn, grow and change. Practicing a growth mindset sets the table for conversations that embrace the concept of “not yet.” For example, if your child tells you that they aren’t good at a skill, you can empathize with the feeling of frustration AND ALSO help them to reframe and move forward. For example, “I know you don’t feel good at this YET. It’s really hard to feel frustrated. But your brain is strong and can learn new things. Let’s problem solve together.”

A growth mindset does not focus on perfection or precision but rather on the progress that our brains are making. It embraces mistakes as opportunities to learn. It allows us the space we need to learn to try new things. A growth mindset builds resilience, grit and perseverance. Our entire family needed more of all of those things.

I recently had the privilege of getting to be a guest on one of my favorite podcasts. The hosts (who just happen to be dear friends of mine!) interviewed me about my story and how to facilitate a growth mindset culture in a family. You can listen to the full episode here.

Children learn through story and imagery. Because of that, this is one of my favorite books about growth mindset. It gives kids such great visual images to go along with the concepts of a growth versus fixed mindset. It’s perfect for ages 6-9. I’ve added it to my resources page.

I’ve created an activity set to introduce the concepts of a growth mindset to early elementary kids (ages 5-7). It focuses on four key vocabulary words and concepts, teaching kids that their brains are amazing, growing, unique and strong. The bundle includes an anchor page to introduce each of these four concepts as well as activities to reinforce the ideas. To see if this is helpful for your students/children, you can try one of the vocabulary and coloring sheets for free by clicking here.

I’ve also created a curriculum for teaching growth mindset to early elementary students. You can grab this entire unit (30+ pages of materials and activities) by signing up for my e-mail list here.

This curriculum includes group discussion prompts, anchor charts, social stories and cut-and-paste activities to help children understand that their brains are growing and amazing. Introducing these ideas to my own children has been a game-changer in how I interact with them. I truly hope that these activities and introduction to growth mindset help the children in your life to THRIVE.

This unit is the first one I created in a series of units to build social and emotional intelligence in kiddos ages 5-7 years old. To take a look at the other units in this series, just click the photo below. My deepest hope for these units is that they may provide tools and language to help families and educators build resilience and social skills.

As we teach these concepts to our little people, may we also remember them for ourselves. Our brains are capable of creating new patterns and pathways too. Resilience is NOT a fixed trait and we are not stuck doing things the way we’ve always done them. May we have the courage to change and the grace to realize that change takes time.