What praise is most motivating for kids?
Not all praise is equally motivating for learning
Julia Leonard is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Yale University where she researches young children’s learning and motivation. Julia explains that young children are motivated by praise for their effort while older children are not.
“The same kind of praise actually has different effects on different ages.”
Julia Leonard
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Motivation to achieve in school declines over the school years. Although many people believe children need praise, it can backfire for motivation.
To raise self-esteem and bring its benefits for academic performance, adults should:
- Help children reflect on their growth over time.
- Give realistic feedback on performance, effort, and strategies.
- Frame failure as an opportunity for learning.
We definitely need to understand that kids respond differently to their environment and to what works for them and their motivational systems at different ages.
So the best example perhaps is process praise. So praise for: “Oh wow, you work so hard” versus person praise like: “You’re such a great artist”.
We know that process praise is better for children’s motivation when they’re young, but when they’re older, it backfires because older children, if they’re praised for their effort they’re like: “What? why? Why do you think I’m stupid? What’s like, what’s wrong?” And so we know that the same kind of praise actually has different effects on different ages.
And so I think we need to really study how children are making sense of their environment and the input they receive across the developmental lifespan.
Footnotes
Julia Leonard is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Yale. She received her BA in Neuroscience and Behavior from Wesleyan University, earned a PhD in Cognitive Science from MIT, and completed a MindCore-funded postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. Julia wants to understand the factors that support children’s approach to learning as well as their capacity to learn. She addresses these questions with the tools of cognitive science, developmental psychology, and neuroscience, with a focus on early childhood and educational implications.
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@LeonardLearnLab on X
Leonard Learning Lab website
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