Conversations with Kids: Building Grit and Determination
For parents and guardians where we give you prompts so that you can have more meaningful conversations with your children to help them build key characteristics such as mental toughness, resilience, confidence, creativity, focus and so on.
A Question for your Kids
Have you ever given up on something because it felt too hard? Maybe it was a tough match, a bad training day, or a goal that seemed out of reach. What if, instead of quitting, you learned how to keep going even when it hurts?
Improves:
- Grit
- Determination
Directions for Parents
Model resilience: Let your children see how you handle your own challenges calmly and with perspective.
Praise effort, not outcomes: Focus your encouragement on perseverance and process rather than trophies or wins.
Teach “segmenting”: Help them break big goals into smaller steps. “Let’s just focus on the next play” or “one training session at a time.”
Ideas for Kids
In the moment when playing sport:
- Try something that feels difficult a new skill, position, or goal.
- When things get hard, take a short break, then come back and give it one more go.
Helpful Resources
If you would like to share your experiences as a sports parent or get insights regarding kids sport psychology, you may also wish to join David in The Sport Psychology Hub.
Best Wishes
David Charlton
Online Sports Psychologist for Kids who supports many youngsters and sports parents so that they have more fun and get the most from their talent across the globe from USA/Canada to Great Britain and Ireland to UAE, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, using ONLINE Video Conferencing.
Managing Director – Inspiring Sporting Excellence
Host of Demystifying Mental Toughness Podcast
Founder of The Sports Psychology Hub
Author of Conversations for Kids
With over a 15 years experience supporting athletes, coaches, parents and teams to transfer their skills from training to competitive situations, under pressure.
