If you haven’t already ready parts 1 and 2 of this blog series, please read them first, as they provide a foundation for understanding a Growth Mindset. In this final post, we will get more concrete about how we can encourage and empower Spellers with these tools.
One of the most powerful ways to employ a Growth Mindset is to get strategic in the way we apply praise. This may sound counterintuitive but if we’re not careful, praise itself can become a reinforcer of a Fixed Mindset – one in which power is abdicated away from the one being praised, reinforcing their dependence on the approval of others. The famous psychotherapist Fritz Perls was credited with the quote that says “If you need encouragement, praise, pats on the back from everybody, then you make everybody your judge.” For individuals with apraxia who have such a tough time making even their own bodies do their bidding, it’s not hard to imagine every bit of self-ownership as being especially precious.
According to Carol Dweck’s research, praising intelligence (or talent) makes students vulnerable while praising process teaches challenge-seeking and resilience. Now, obviously for Spellers whom the world has seen as unintelligent, it is critical that we communicate that we presume competence and know they are smart. I don’t want to minimize that. However, once that has been made clear, instead of constantly telling them they are smart, point out what you notice that is happening in their process – particularly when something is working well. This redirects the focus away from re-adjudicating fixed characteristics and external evaluation, and onto the empowering awareness of how we get from point A to point Z!
Here are six specific ways we can offer empowering feedback that instills and reinforces a Growth Mindset:
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- Firstly, get comfortable with not filling every moment with overt verbal encouragement. If you are feeling so proud that it oozes out of every cell, what a beautiful and thrilling thing. Let it show without words. I’d wager your speller can feel you beaming.
- Avoid the “good job” loop for every letter. Instead of throwing a party after every word spelled, save your encouraging commentary for what you noticed them do. (“You really slowed your arm down between pokes just now!”)
- If you are a CRP (Communicative Regulation Partner) in the acquisition phase of learning spelled communication, practice the tools of effective S2C prompts in coaching your speller. Immediate feedback is more effective for learning than delayed feedback, and that’s exactly what prompting offers.
- Instead of praising outcomes, acknowledge effort. (“Man, I know you really struggled to inhibit those impulses, but I could tell you were working so hard.”)
- Add the word already to observations about skills the Speller has, reinforcing process rather than fixed traits. (“Wow, you’re already sitting for 15 minutes or more to spell. That’s more than we could do at first. Your hard work means we can keep expanding our skills as a team!”)
- In discussing (or even thinking about) any goal or skill that is not currently being realized, add the word yet to the end of it. (“We are not spelling openly yet”; “No, we haven’t moved up to the 26 letter board – just yet”, etc.) Three little letters can uproot a limiting frame and replace it with unlimited possibility!
And if you haven’t inferred it already, a Growth Mindset isn’t just an effective strategy for Spellers. It’s critical for CRPs as well. If you are determined to build your skills in any arena, I hope this mindset shift offers as much help and encouragement to you as it continues to do for me!