Skip to Content

Parenting Tips

This section contains weekly parenting tips and strategies ranging from picky eaters to positive discipline!

If you have a tip or strategy, please share it with us!

The Language Of Encouragement

What is the difference between encouragement and praise? Praise tends to focus on external feedback while encouragement helps to teach self-evaluation. Praise often focuses on only one component, the finished result while encouragement focuses on the process, the how, the journey. This can help children to persevere at difficult tasks and not only focus on the outcome or to please others.

Here are some examples of encouraging language.

  • ‘Thank you for being patient at the store.’
  • ‘You look like you are feeling very proud of yourself for fixing that!’
  • ‘I can tell you really enjoy that.’
  • ‘How do you feel about this?’
  • ‘What do you think should happen?’
  • ‘What would you do (think/feel) if _______________?’
  • ‘I need to plan the shopping list and I would love to hear your ideas.’
  • ‘You really worked hard on that.’
  • ‘You’re getting better at __________’
  • ‘I know it didn’t work out the way you expected.’
  • ‘I noticed that when you tried _________________, it seemed to work better.’
  • ‘What do you think the squirrel will do with the acorn?’
  • ‘How did you make those cookies so chewy?’
  • “You did that problem on your own! I can see you’re happy with yourself!’
  • ‘Oops – you dropped the ball, that’s okay, let’s try again.’
  • ‘I know you’re scared of the thunder. Let’s snuggle up and look at this book about storms.’
  • ‘That was fun. Let’s play that game together again soon.’
  • ‘Goodnight, I sure enjoyed my day with you.’

For a more in depth discussion of encouragement vs praise, join us for our one hour snapshot session on Thursday, July 29, 2021 from 7:00 – 8:00 pm. To register email parentingnow.ca

  • Father, Son, Hammock, Boy, Child, Family


Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Join our monthly newsletter. Delivered right to your email box.