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Help Students Create Reasonable Expectations for Themselves

Tags

Social-Emotional Learning All Ages Strategy

Skills

Anxiety Flexible Thinking Self-regulation

Help Students Create Reasonable Expectations for Themselves

All children, particularly those who are stressed or unmotivated

How To Apply It!

  1. Helping children create reasonable expectations for themselves based on their current needs and capabilities will lessen anxiety and, over time, helps them develop independence through increased self-awareness, self-confidence and intrinsic motivation.
  2. Know your child. Understand what comes easily and what feels harder. If your child does not have a Mindprint profile, consider getting one.
  3. Use the Mindprint profile along with other objective information (test scores, grades, teacher reports, etc.) to discuss your child's strengths and needs with him. Here are some helpful ways to approach the discussion..
  4. Set goals with your child based on where he is today, not where he or you want him to be in future. View this as an incremental approach. Your child will eventually hit the goal, but it needs to feel manageable to him. Learn more about goal setting.
  5. Recognize anxiety, anger or self-doubt. These are powerful feelings. Too much of any of these emotions will interfere with learning. Discuss these feelings and figure out how you can help. If necessary, consider outside support from a teacher or professional.
  6. Help your child meet his goal with balanced support. He needs to do the work, but you provide guidance and reasonable help as needed. If he asks you to make sure his younger siblings are quiet during homework, that is an important parenting support. If he has difficulty with organization, you can help him create a system and implement it until he can manage it himself.
  7. Follow-up. Did he achieve his goal? If not, what could he do differently next time? If he did, celebrate the success! Praise the effort and follow through. On another day, move the goal line forward. What's the next step for personal growth?

Why It Works (the Science Of Learning)!

The best way to help kids succeed is to understand their needs, set reasonable goals, and then support them in meeting those goals. While the ultimate goal is a student who is motivated and works independently, students will reach that goal at different rates and with different needs for support. It is important to start with your child where he currently is and create manageable goals until he reaches that ultimate goal of self-sufficiency.