Life isn’t a string of continual successes; it’s a string of attempts at success. Think of your child’s first steps. Many of those initial efforts to walk likely ended in a tumble. But that didn’t stop them from getting up again. Soon enough, your child was walking and eventually running. That’s how growth works. In this expert alert, Angela Mattke, M.D., a pediatrician at Mayo Clinic Children’s Center, offers tips for helping your child learn to try, and try again.
“As your child gets older, you’ll help him or her take on bigger and more complex endeavors — physically, mentally and emotionally. There will be more falls and even some face plants, no doubt,” Dr. Mattke says. “But your job as a parent is to help your child get back up and try again.”
To help your child prepare for future challenges, Dr. Mattke suggests:
- Making sure your child knows that the process of learning a skill can be as important as the skill itself, and that failure isn’t something to be feared or avoided.
- Helping your child see failure as a natural byproduct of learning and experimenting with new things.
- Acknowledging when a situation stinks. Let your child know that it’s OK to be disappointed or upset.
- Encouraging your child to think about how to deal with the loss or how to get better.
- Sharing stories about times that you failed and what you learned from the experiences.
- Letting your child see you try new things, even if it’s something you’re not good at.
For more tips on helping children grow and thrive, visit Mayo Clinic Press and MayoClinic.org.
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