Celebrate efforts rather than grades: building lasting motivation
What if true success is not only reflected in the report card, but in the way your child faces difficulties?
A good grade reassures, a bad one worries. Caught in this seesaw, parents and children end up forgetting the essential: what the child is really learning, how they approach it, what they put in place to progress. By praising efforts more than results, you help them develop solid motivation that does not collapse at the first 8/20 that comes along.
🧠 Why focus on efforts?
Research in educational psychology shows that a child encouraged for their efforts develops a growth mindset: they believe their abilities can evolve. In contrast, when the focus is solely on grades or “talents,” the child adopts a fixed mindset: “I am good” or “I am bad,” and each evaluation becomes a verdict.
Resilience
The child learns to get back up after a failure and to analyze what they can improve.
Perseverance
They understand that success is the result of repeated efforts, not a mysterious “gift.”
Autonomy
They seek strategies rather than waiting for the adult's solution.
💬 How to concretely praise efforts?
Praising efforts is not about saying “You worked hard, that's good” regardless of the result. It’s about identifying what the child has put in place and naming it.
- “You practiced several evenings in a row before your test, even when you were tired.”
- “You agreed to redo this exercise instead of giving up.”
- “You looked for another way to solve this problem when the first one didn’t work.”
- “You took the time to neatly redo your paper after making a mistake.”
💡 DYNSEO Tip
You can, once a week, revisit together an “effort you are proud of.” It doesn’t matter what the grade is: what matters is that your child develops their own ability to recognize their progress.
📉 What to do when grades are not (yet) following?
It is possible that, despite significant efforts, grades remain average or low. This is often the case for children with learning disabilities (DYS), ADHD, or after a long period of disengagement. In these situations, focusing solely on the grade can be deeply discouraging.
“You got 9/20, and that’s the best grade of your term. This number doesn’t say everything, but it already shows that your efforts are starting to pay off.”
Example of positive feedback on a grade
We can also distinguish the child's part and the system's part: “You did your part of the work, the rest builds over time, with the teacher, with the accommodations you need.”
🎓 Preventing school dropout
The DYNSEO training helps families to move away from the logic of grades = child's worth, and to build an environment that supports perseverance in the long term.
Discover the training →📱 COCO, JOE & DYNSEO training: resources to maintain effort
The DYNSEO tools allow the child to see their progress in areas other than grades, and to connect it with their efforts.
🎮 COCO THINKS and COCO MOVES
In COCO, the child quickly sees that by replaying the same game multiple times, they improve. It’s a playful way to show them that repeated effort leads to improvement, without the pressure of grades.
Discover COCO →🧠 JOE, brain coach
For teens, JOE becomes a complementary training ground to homework. You can value not the final score, but the consistency of training: “You played 10 minutes every day this week, that’s what will make the difference.”
Discover JOE →🤍 Supporting anxious children
For an anxious child, every grade can become a huge issue. Combining praise for efforts with anxiety management tools is a very powerful combination.
Discover the training for anxious children →🎯 Conclusion
Praising efforts rather than grades does not deny the importance of academic results. It places these results in a broader trajectory: that of a child learning to persevere, to get back up, to believe in their ability to progress. Lasting motivation is built on this foundation, day after day.
