Here's how to teach your child the value of persistence!

As a parent, we want our kids to pick up the best habits. We constantly 'tell our kids' to do certain things - Say thank you to the uncle who gave you a gift! Be polite to the house help! What we often forget is that in the case of children picking up habits, our actions speak much louder than our words. Am I speaking politely to the guard myself? Am I saying thank you when am supposed to? Another behaviour trait that Julia Leonard (of MIT) has studied is how grit and persistence can be taught to children. Across one study and a preregistered replication (182 babies in total), babies who had seen an adult persist and succeed pushed a toy button about twice as many times as those who saw an adult effortlessly succeed. Babies learned that effort was valuable after watching just two examples of an adult working hard and succeeding. More here

Introducing TradeBriefs SME - Print edition - Subscribe Now! | Sample copy