Palm Beach Gifted Youth
Aug 28, 2025
Perfection isn’t the goal—progress is! Learn how a growth mindset can help gifted kids turn mistakes into stepping stones for confidence, resilience, and lifelong learning.
Gifted kids often hear, “You’re so smart!” While well-meaning, that praise can make them feel like anything less than an A is failure. Over time, this pressure fuels perfectionism and fear of mistakes. The antidote is teaching a growth mindset, the idea that intelligence and ability grow through effort, practice, and persistence.
Parents can encourage this shift by praising effort instead of outcomes (“I love how hard you worked on that problem”), normalizing mistakes by sharing their own, and asking process-focused questions like “What challenged you today?” or “What strategy helped you when you got stuck?” Remind kids that failure isn’t the opposite of success, it’s part of learning. Encourage them to try new things outside their comfort zone, and model curiosity by picking up a new skill yourself.
When children learn to value progress over perfection, they become more resilient, more confident, and more excited about the journey of learning, not just the grade at the end.