Scaffolding your child's success

Scaffolding, usually used in the educational realm, refers to “helping students learn more by working with a teacher or a more advanced student to achieve their learning goals.”

This is a great parenting strategy.  We want to have an understanding of how our child currently functions with any task and provide just enough support for them to feel that they participated in its completion.

• Make the activity, or their contribution to the activity at a manageable level of difficulty.

• Structure the situation to support your child in solving the problem, with as little support from you as necessary.

• Allow your child to take the lead in the activity.

• Encourage their effort, not the end product.
  Notice and call out small successes to encourage them to hang in there.

• Celebrate their participation.

This strategy helps to build responsibility and self esteem.