The 'Wrong' Way To Praise Children

By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - So what do you think? Does praising your child help or hurt and when is praise too much praise?

It is obviously a good thing to use praise to encourage children, but can the wrong type of praise have a negative effect?

Some new research looked at parents' praise of 50 US children ages 1-3 years old. On 3 visits per year, the researchers noted how parents praised their children at 1, 2, and 3 years of age. They broke praise into two areas: process praise, which focused on actions which led to success; and person praise, which praised the toddler for being successful.

Here is the most interesting part. After 5 years, the children who primarily received process praise enjoyed challenges and figured out how to overcome obstacles. But those who received praise that was not earned had less success related to challenges.