Preschoolers, Praise, and the Power of Yet

I discovered a good read this morning on KQED News about the importance of praise and how best to use praise to help students “develop a healthy sense of self.” According to author Deborah Farmer Kris, preschool students are in the early stages “of developing who they are, what they can do, and who they are capable of becoming.” This time, Ms. Kris contends, is pivotal to the “development of their self-concept” and can mean the difference between “a healthy mental model of how they learn and grow” moving forward. A point that really resonated with me, from Ms. Kris’ piece, is the idea of how best to harness the “power of yet.”

Like Ms. Kris, I believe as preschoolers become more independent “they toggle between the frustration of ‘I can’t do it!’ and the excitement of ‘I did it myself!'” Parents and teachers spend the majority of their time working with children to help them navigate between a sense of accomplishment and failure. Failure is a critical part of learning; therefore, it is important to help students understand the space between success (I can do it) and failure (I missed the mark). I believe that in-between space is where parents and teachers can find the “power of yet.” You can find the link to Ms. Kris’ post here. tlb