It might be said that encouraging children to think that they are intelligent would be a good strategy, one to implement as soon as possible. Especially these days, as it fits with the daft idea that tiny children should be taught numeracy and literacy. This can be monitored, so we can then tell just how intelligent they really are.
Dream on! Anyone who spends time with children and takes the trouble to observe them can see that intelligence is in most cases too flexible a concept to be easy to fathom, especially as it bears no relationship to achievement.
Research shows that cleverness contributes little to success, and children who are told they are clever end up doing worse than their classmates. What counts is application. Teachers and parents who focus on this rather than individual intelligence get much better results.
Children who believe they are intrinsically clever get the idea that they should find problems undemanding and so feel discouraged by failure. They see set-backs and the need to exert themselves as a threat to their self-image, and so lose confidence and motivation as soon as they begin to struggle. Often they end up with the idea that working hard is a sign of inferior ability and so they avoid it like the plague.
On the other hand, children who have a mind-set that embraces growth and effort, rather than the idea of innate intelligence, are the ones who become the high achievers; they solve more problems after meeting adversity than before.
If you think intelligence is fixed, then you can become helpless in the face of adversity because you see no way out; whereas thinking that intelligence is something to be developed through education and hard work gives a belief in growth that makes you want to learn and develop your intellectual skills.
Children need to be praised for their efforts and persistence from as early an age as possible. For most of the primary years, actual results are less important than putting the right attitude in place. Blow the league tables! Children need to see how learning changes the brain, not that the brain limits your learning.
- Robin Balbernie is a consultant child psychotherapist in Gloucestershire.
