Yesterday I went for workshop of "how to Praise Children". From this workshop I am able to gain some new knowledge about children sensitivity.
There are 10 ways to praise children. i) Don't over do it, when we praise them for the first time for their achievement it's worth making a big deal about it. But gushing over everyday achievements ( 'you finish your milk- awesome') will cause the child to discount praise he's truly earned. ii) Be specific, instead of saying "great job", say, "your hand writing are nice it didn't cross the line". This will make the child feel that we notice their work and encourage them to do more. iii) Emphasize on the effort not the outcome, when the child is learning the new activity, don't comment on how well she do it. Count on their enthusiasm and progress and on't compare with other children. iv) Focus on the feat, children have hard time to distinguishing between who they are and what they do. So instead of commending them, ("you are very good in Mathematics) praise the action, (" You were very hardworking and never give up"). This will help them to understand the behavior that earn the compliment. v) Point out the positive, it is easy to point out the mistakes make by children but instead of doing that we should try to find the positive inside them and point it so that the child will be proud of themselves and motivate them to be better. vi)Don't brag, overdoing praise in public ( Don't you think that Alice is the best dancer among another children same age with her?") isn't just annoying to other people parents and it also give pressure on child to perform.vii) Share child achievement with spouse. viii) Tell the truth. Even young kids can see right through false compliments, the best strategy is to be honest and diplomatic when commenting on child's ability. If the child handwriting is bad don't tell them it nice tell them how you like the effort of them writing. ix) Use body language, nonverbal cues are great ways to express our approval, for example when children reading book just give a rub on their back, they will get the message that we are proud of them and keep reading. x) Avoid sarcasm, don't poise praise with snarky comments (" you so clever right then you give the correct answer"'). The children may not get our attempt at humor and pointing out past failing is a form of criticism.
From the workshop I was able to notice that the above fact mostly are true. To understand children better is to remember back how we feel if we were treat that kind of way.
