My child is paralyzed by making mistakes…

The fear of making a mistake stops them from starting. My child doesn’t know how to move on when a mistake happens. My child destroys their work if they make a mistake. 

The above statements are all too common when we talk with parents about their child’s schoolwork, artwork, and even lego building experience. Mistakes are a normal and necessary part of learning but for some children, they can be paralyzing. As a first step to helping your child to tolerate making mistakes, we recommend creating a family “Mistake Jar.” 

At home, you can start a “mistake jar” to talk about how everyone makes mistakes and this is totally normal! During the day (or at a specific time each day), family members can share about a mistake they made and how they fixed it. Parents should share their mistakes to help model the process. It is important to share both small mistakes such as how you accidentally bumped into someone at the grocery store and bigger mistakes such as leaving the house late which made you late to work. Support each family member in identifying the size of the mistake and provide positive feedback for the actions they took to remedy it or to just move on if no action was necessary. Each time a mistake is shared, a cotton ball can be placed in a jar or cup and when it is full, the family can have a celebration together (ice cream, movie, game night, etc.).

Celebrating mistakes and making them a normal part of our daily lives can help to make them less scary in the future. 

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