K through fifth grade
Children develop the identity of “learner” when parents share their love of learning while providing unconditional love. Learner Identity helps you raise a child who is motivated to learn — even when it isn’t fun and no rewards are offered.
Key Strategies
- Model engaged learning. Let your child see you learning new things for the pleasure of it. The topic doesn’t matter. Expose your child to some of the learning process along with the satisfaction that comes with it.
- Love your child unconditionally. To maximize the pull of your example, your child must feel in their bones that there is nothing they can do to make you love them more or less (such as doing well or poorly in school) because you already love them as much as it is possible for one human being to love another.
- Praise for effort more than for results. Guide your child to value the learning process above “the state of being smart” by recognizing and praising them for engaging in learning — regardless of the immediate result.
Additional Resources
Book: The Self-Driven Child, William Stixrud and Ned Johnson
Book: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol S. Dweck
Learner Identity