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    September 7, 2022
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STUDY SHOWS PARENT PRAISE MIGHT ENCOURAGE CHILDREN'S PERSISTENCE To become healthy and successful adults, children need to persist on tasks that they might not necessarily consider easy or fun, like studying, exercising, or brushing one's teeth. Throughout childhood, persistence behavior changes daily, but the factors that shape this variability in persistence are understudied. A new study analyzed daily toothbrushing behaviors in three-year-olds and examined the relationship between their persistence on the task and parental praise. The study included eighty-one three-year-olds learning to brush their own teeth. Parents submitted videos of nightly toothbrushing over 16 days, capturing both children's persistence and parent talk. Parents were asked to let their child brush their teeth by themselves for as long as they could before the parent stepped in to help. The videos also included parents talking to their child throughout the toothbrushing and "praise" used by parents throughout the nightly ritual. Praise was broken into categories including "process praise" (e.g., "good job"), "person praise" (e.g., "good girl"), and "other praise" (e.g., "very good" or "nice"). Other utterances from parents included "distraction" (e.g., singing, reading a book, invoking pretend play), and using expressions such as "brush the backs" and "keep brushing" as instruction. The findings showed that children's persistence fluctuates from day to day and is related to parent talk. Children brushed longer on days when their parents used more praise and less instruction. Parent praise during toothbrushing mostly consisted of generic praise and process (e.g., "nice" and "great job"), with few instances of person praise (e.g., "good girl"). Children varied in their sensitivity to mood, sleep, and parent stress. SM-CL2010747 Presented as a service to the community by Dr. Barbara Webster 1121 Warren Ave., Suite 130, Downers Grove, IL 60515 630-663-0554 STUDY SHOWS PARENT PRAISE MIGHT ENCOURAGE CHILDREN'S PERSISTENCE To become healthy and successful adults , children need to persist on tasks that they might not necessarily consider easy or fun , like studying , exercising , or brushing one's teeth . Throughout childhood , persistence behavior changes daily , but the factors that shape this variability in persistence are understudied . A new study analyzed daily toothbrushing behaviors in three - year - olds and examined the relationship between their persistence on the task and parental praise . The study included eighty - one three - year - olds learning to brush their own teeth . Parents submitted videos of nightly toothbrushing over 16 days , capturing both children's persistence and parent talk . Parents were asked to let their child brush their teeth by themselves for as long as they could before the parent stepped in to help . The videos also included parents talking to their child throughout the toothbrushing and " praise " used by parents throughout the nightly ritual . Praise was broken into categories including " process praise " ( e.g. , " good job " ) , " person praise " ( e.g. , " good girl " ) , and " other praise " ( e.g. , " very good " or " nice " ) . Other utterances from parents included " distraction " ( e.g. , singing , reading a book , invoking pretend play ) , and using expressions such as " brush the backs " and " keep brushing " as instruction . The findings showed that children's persistence fluctuates from day to day and is related to parent talk . Children brushed longer on days when their parents used more praise and less instruction . Parent praise during toothbrushing mostly consisted of generic praise and process ( e.g. , " nice " and " great job " ) , with few instances of person praise ( e.g. , " good girl " ) . Children varied in their sensitivity to mood , sleep , and parent stress . SM - CL2010747 Presented as a service to the community by Dr. Barbara Webster 1121 Warren Ave. , Suite 130 , Downers Grove , IL 60515 630-663-0554