In another experimental condition in the same study, the researchers provided all the attributions themselves.  When a child succeeded with a sentence, the experimenter would say, “That was good. That means you tried hard.” After an error, the experimenter would say, “No, you didn’t get that. That means you have to try harder.”  Listening to this adult figure make the attributions led to improvements in both reading and attributional style. Children learn their attribution styles, to a large extent, from their parents and teachers. To improve your child’s attribution styles, an important first step is to improve your own.

Tips for Parents

Model good attributional style for your children. When you or your children fail, seek to describe that failure, as much as possible, in terms of external, unstable, and/or context-specific causes.

P. Vishton