Molly Huggins

Molly is a member of our creative team, mom of four water-loving babies, and a fierce advocate for CPR training and really early swim instruction.

The post Growth Mindset: Building Relationships appeared first on One with the Water.

Understanding Growth-Oriented Feedback: Person Praise versus Process Praise

When it comes to praise and feedback, many parents fall into the same fixed – mindset traps that can ultimately hamper children’s ability to develop growth mindsets. When we say well-meaning things like, “You’re so smart!” we overlook the fact that these words associated with personal attributes may ultimately be damaging. “You’re so smart!” might feel like appropriate praise at the moment, but later, when your child meets with inevitable failure, they may fall to pieces because the words they internalized about themselves — you’re so smart — don’t seem true, after all.

The above is known as person praise. Person praise focuses solely on the personal traits and qualities of the individual.

The problem with person praise is that it sends the message that a child succeeded because of some inherent, inborn quality they possess (in this case, intelligence) rather than the effort they put into the task.

PROCESS PRAISE:

When we use the word “praise,” we are talking about a specific kind of encouragement of effort known as “process praise.” On the other hand, process praise acknowledges effort, strategies, or actions that contributed to the success of a task. It sounds more like this: “You worked really hard at that,” and sends the message that the amount of effort put into the task led to success.

So how does this look at home or school?

Person Praise: “You are so smart at math!”

Process Praise: “Your effort in studying is really evident by your latest test score.”

When you as a parent tie success or failure to effort, strategy, or action, you don’t communicate to your child your vision of them as a whole being, but just on that one thing, right here and right now. In that moment, unrelated to intrinsic qualities and personal traits, your child can better understand the connection between effort and achievement. At that moment, it has nothing to do with being smart or stupid; it has everything to do with perseverance and the process of learning.

Understanding Growth-Oriented Feedback: Vague Praise versus Specific, Process-Oriented Praise

In vague praise, the person is given no specific indication of what was done that had value or meaning to the achievement. Never use the phrase “good job” or “nice work.” On the other hand, specific praise illustrates to your child precisely what was done that resulted in achievement.

Here are some sample feedback statement openers to ensure your feedback is specific and process-oriented:

• I noticed how …
• Look at how much progress you’ve made on …
• I see a difference in this work compared to …
• I admire how hard you have worked on …
• I can see you really enjoyed learning …
• Could it make a difference if you …?
• Have you considered trying a different strategy to …?
• You’re on the right track here but could benefit from …

At One with the Water, we focus on specific, process-oriented praise to ensure our clients understand exactly what we expect and how much they can truly accomplish.

Molly Huggins

Molly is a member of our creative team, mom of four water-loving babies, and a fierce advocate for CPR training and really early swim instruction.

The post Growth Mindset: Growth Oriented Feedback Between Parent and Child appeared first on One with the Water.

How do you approach the following situations: Professional development you find difficult, boring, or unnecessary? Difficult relationships? How can self-talk assist in improving difficult relationships with others?

The way we talk to ourselves about obstacles and frame situations in our heads can make a difference in how we choose to handle those situations. Whether you tackle an obstacle with a growth mindset or avoid it or rationalize it away with a fixed mindset, has a great deal to do with how you’ve established the situation in your own head.

So, the question becomes, how can you shut down fixed-mindset self-talk and replace it with growth-mindset self-talk? Often, using your growth mindset just means changing your self-talk. Instead of writing others off, you seek to find ways to help them. Instead of giving up, you figure out another way to attack the problem. Instead of letting jealousy or feelings of inadequacy take center stage, you focus on how you can improve.

The first thing to do is to recognize your fixed mindset voice. Are you a blamer? An avoider? A rationalizer? Or all three? Once you do that, you can identify your triggers and start to deal with them, moving from the fixed mindset to the growth mindset.

The following are strategies for addressing triggers and maximizing self-talk to create positive relationships.

1. As mentioned above, know your triggers. If you identify triggers ahead of time, you can prepare ahead of time with strategies to head them off.
2. When your self-talk turns to the fixed mindset (I can’t do this!) add the word “yet” to the end of it. “I can’t do this, yet,” is a way to rephrase a fixed – mindset message into a growth – mindset message quickly and effectively, as the “yet” implies there exists a path to understanding and growth if you’re willing to put in the work.

As you approach relationships with others, engage the following self-talk strategies before interactions in order to facilitate growth.

• Intentionally Look for the Good
• Find Something You Have in Common
• Three Positives for Every Negative

Our self-talk can also be our harshest critic. Make efforts to make sure your self-talk is positive and kind. Instead of berating yourself for negative interactions with someone, speak to yourself as you would someone else who has failed in some way or made a mistake — with love and compassion.

Being critical of ourselves isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We should reflect on our interpersonal skills with a critical eye, but we should do it in a way that is helpful, not in a way that attacks our value and self-worth.

*Developed from In Other Words: Phrases for Growth Mindset: A Teacher’s Guide to Empowering Clients through Effective Praise and Feedback (Growth Mindset for Teachers) by Annie Brock, and Heather Hundley.

Molly Huggins

Molly is a member of our creative team, mom of four water-loving babies, and a fierce advocate for CPR training and really early swim instruction.

The post Growth Mindset: How to approach Self-Talk appeared first on One with the Water.

Definition of a Growth Mindset

In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. – Carol Dweck

In any given situation, how we choose to operate, whether from the lens of the growth mindset or the fixed mindset, makes all the difference in our ability to grow and change as individuals.

Dweck identified five key situations in which a person’s mindset has a significant influence on the outcome.

1. Challenges: A difficult task one might encounter.
2. Obstacles: Something that prevents progress in pursuit of a goal or achievement.
3. Effort: The work put forth in the process of completion of a task, challenge, or goal.
4. Criticism: A critical judgment from another.
5. The success of others. Achievement or success achieved by another person; particularly coveted success.

Attributes of a Growth Mindset Oriented Person

Learning to utilize the growth mindset in these five situations will result in outcomes that focus on genuine learning and growth, regardless of the presence of obstacles or the possibility of failure. When you properly apply the growth mindset, you begin to manifest the following attributes of a growth-mindset-oriented, driven, and ultimately successful individual.

• Flexible: Understanding of others’ needs, able to adjust expectations when attending to those needs.
• High expectations: Has high expectations of everyone. Models those expectations through body language, verbal communication, positive reinforcement, and constructive feedback.
• Communicative: Offers lots of process-oriented feedback to peers and subordinates.
• Strong relationships: Demonstrates caring and concern for others.
• Process-oriented: Understands that learning is less about the outcome and more about the process. Praises and critiques the process, not the person.
• Values mistakes: Normalizes mistakes and values them as learning opportunities.
• Empathetic: Makes an effort to view challenges and struggles from others’ perspectives.

Over the coming months, we will dive deeper into this process as we learn what it truly means to be growth-oriented. Stay tuned!

Molly Huggins

Molly is a member of our creative team, mom of four water-loving babies, and a fierce advocate for CPR training and really early swim instruction.

The post Growth Mindset: A Review appeared first on One with the Water.

As an organization with a unique focus on serving children and families with special needs, we do our best to be aware of significant issues happening in the community. COVID-19 continues to dictate our day to day in an unprecedented manner. Schooling at home carries additional challenges for teachers and parents engaging with children who require extra help and resources to manage their educational needs.

In normal circumstances, the federal Individuals with Disabilities Act ensures that such families receive the support they need in the education system.

“The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a law that makes available a free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures special education and related services to those children.The IDEA governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education, and related services to more than 6.5 million eligible infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities.” Source

Due to the constraints of COVID-19, some school districts are unable to provide the resources and support available. Some students aren’t receiving any instruction online at all. Now the issue is coming to a head in Washington, DC, as advocates and administrators go head to head over how to best support these students with the resources available.

According to the Washington Post, 

“The advocates are demanding that school districts deliver education equitably, as the law requires. Administrators say they cannot do the same things they did when schools were open and need some flexibility.”

In short, advocates are demanding that all tenets of the IDEA be upheld and all legal rights afforded to students, and no waivers to the authority of the law should be granted.

Administrators, on the other hand, argue that waiver authority is necessary.

“Local education agencies (LEAs) are facing a great deal of compliance challenges which are taking our focus from educating children with disabilities and shifting, focusing our effort on paperwork. Without flexibility, we will generate endless cycles of reporting about how COVID-19 caused money to be unspent, evaluations to be delayed, and services and supports that are in IEPs that are not able to be implemented.

(From the letter from the special education administrators’ organizations seeking flexibility from Congress)

Read the full Washington Post Article here for full copies of the letters detailing each side’s case in the matter. 

How is this affecting your family? Are you receiving the support you need? Let us know and don’t forget to share!

Molly Huggins

Molly is a member of our creative team, mom of four water-loving babies, and a fierce advocate for CPR training and really early swim instruction.

The post Upholding the Individuals With Disabilities Act appeared first on One with the Water.

In fact, for all ages under 85, young people between the ages of 15 and 24 have the highest rates of drowning nationwide, and these typically occur in natural water settings, such as oceans, lakes, and rivers. Additionally, an astonishing 80% of those are male. 

So how do you protect your teen from drowning? Follow these seven simple, common-sense tips to keep your child from being a statistic. 

7 Water Safety Tips For Teens

1. In a boat, wear a lifejacket. Sounds simple, but as mentioned, most of these drownings occur in natural bodies of water. Protect yourself and your loved ones by adding this layer of protection when boating. 
2. Don’t allow your teen to swim alone. Most of the drownings in this age group occur when children are swimming without adult supervision. Never let your teen swim alone or hang out near water without adult eyes on the situation. 
3. Additionally, when at the ocean, pay attention to posted swim warnings. Don’t go in the water without lifeguards and avoid dangerous undertows. 
4. Water safety is a family affair! Both you AND your teen should learn CPR. Be prepared to assist in an emergency. (I can’t emphasize this enough after my own experience with almost losing a child to drowning. Every adult should know CPR.
5. Inflatable life rafts do not count as a life preserver. Please do not rely on them to keep your child safe. 
6. Teach your teen to be smart in the water. Choose safe places to swim and scout the area for submerged dangers. Learn to recognize when hidden obstacles or powerful undertows could be present. Don’t drink and swim. 
7. Finally, learn to swim! Swim lessons can reduce the risk of drowning by up to 88%. Know what to look for in a swim instructor (Not sure? Read this.) and follow up with premium swim lessons that will help your child to succeed both in the water and out. 

Parenting is hard. Keeping your children safe in seemingly scary times is hard. But we do have the tools, and we would encourage you to keep using them. Follow us here on the blog and Facebook for more safety tips, quality coaching, and swimming news. 

Molly Huggins

Molly is a member of our creative team, mom of four water-loving babies, and a fierce advocate for CPR training and really early swim instruction.

The post Water Safety and Teens: 7 Ways to Keep Them Safe appeared first on One with the Water.

At One with the Water, our swimming lessons are taught using growth-mindset techniques. We witness transformative miracles in our students, both in and out of the water, as they shift from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. People with a growth mindset learn to love challenges, are intrigued by mistakes, and intentionally seek out new challenges. They have learned that their circumstances matter less than who they are. 

“In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.” – Carol Dweck.

Positive Feedback

A core component of parenting and coaching in a manner that fosters a growth mindset is the language we use in giving positive feedback. It requires the most intention and retraining due to our current culture of reflexive praise. As a parent myself, I still find this the most difficult to remember in the moment as I go about the daily tasks of raising tiny humans.

Our natural tendency is to respond with a phrase like, “Good job!” While well-intentioned, using this type of expression does nothing to delineate the line between talent, effort, and results. Rather than giving children feedback about how their process of work led to a specific outcome so they can continue to develop their abilities, saying “Good job” implies an end state of success.

Growth Mindset Tools

Instead of saying “good job,” consider the following statements when your child/student is successful in his or her effort. (Source: Mindset Works Growth Mindset Feedback Tool)

• I am so proud of the effort you put forth.
• I am very proud of you for not giving up and look at what you have to show for it!
• Congratulations – you really used great strategies for (fill in the blank).
• I want you to remember for a moment how challenging this was when you began. Look at how far you have come!
• All that hard work and effort paid off!
• The next time you have a challenge like this, what will you do?
• What choices did you make that you think contributed to your success?
• It’s exciting to see the difference in your work now when we compare it to your earlier work.
• Doesn’t it feel good to master this? How does it feel to master this?
• Are you proud of yourself? Tell me what makes you most proud.

Remember that all our responses, growth or otherwise, will have a natural effect on the children we are raising and coaching. We must be using the correct ones.

Molly Huggins

Molly is a member of our creative team, mom of four water-loving babies, and a fierce advocate for CPR training and really early swim instruction.

The post What to say instead of “Good Job”: Growth Mindset Tools appeared first on One with the Water.

The five principles of One with the Water premium swim instruction.

First, we promise you our uninterrupted presence.  We work very hard to maintain eye contact, especially for our children with special needs. Your safety and well-being are our number one concern. We teach without distractions to avoid any possible safety hazards. If you have questions or concerns while we are teaching, we’d love to address them with you after the fact in order to remain focused on your child’s safety during the lesson. 

Second, we promise to set a high standard for you or your child. We create high but reachable standards of accomplishment for each lesson. Our overall goal is to teach you or your child to swim in less than 4 hours! We are in the business of miracles because we know our methods work.  

Third, we promise to impart life skills. We are preparing our students to learn to swim for exercise and enjoyment for the rest of their lives. We will develop your strengths in and out of the water, including both physical and mental conditioning.  

Fourth, we promise to motivate you or your child.  Swimming is a life-changing skill. It’s therapeutic, calming, and a mental game-changer. And we get to make it fun for you! 

And finally, we promise positive encouragement. We teach all our lessons with laughter and learning. We’ll help you be gentle on yourself when you make mistakes using those opportunities to learn to overcome fear and build confidence. 

Register today.

Swimming isn’t just about drowning prevention and building skills. We teach you to incorporate the positive power of swimming throughout the whole of your life, using growth, hard work, persistence, and motivation to be successful in and out of the water. That is our promise to you. 

If you haven’t already, register today for life-changing swim lessons we provide.  

Molly Huggins

Molly is a member of our creative team, mom of four water-loving babies, and a fierce advocate for CPR training and really early swim instruction.

The post Five Principles of Premium Swim Lessons appeared first on One with the Water.

Sometimes the news can be overwhelming. Right now, LA County caught on fire seemingly overnight. Hundreds of thousands of Northern Californians are without power. Hurricane Dorian almost shut down the entire East Coast last month. In any disaster, natural or otherwise, it’s easy to feel panicked, helpless, and out of control. 

Take drowning, for example. It doesn’t always look the way we imagine it would. This post, written in 2010, goes viral at the beginning of every summer, but let me summarize the facts. Drowning produces what’s known as the instinctive drowning response. It’s silent, as victims are physically unable to cry out for help, fast (less than 30 seconds), and doesn’t involve a whole lot of thrashing around. And perhaps the most alarming, over half of adolescent drownings each year occur within 25 yards of an adult, and in 10 percent of those incidents, the adult will watch them drown with no idea what is happening.  

CPR Saves Lives

I know this is true because it happened to me. My three-year-old passed out in the water with two adults nearby while all our  attention was focused on a minor emergency outside the pool. In those crucial seconds, he decided to swim across the pool, was unable to reach the side, and passed out from holding his breath. Thankfully, he was seen, rescued, and resuscitated by  my cousin using CPR, with no damage to his brain and body. In those moments, however, it became shockingly clear that I was unprepared to give him CPR. In fact, according to a study done by the American Heart Association, less than 20 percent of Americans are equipped to perform CPR during a medical emergency. 

Why does that matter? Well, if a bystander does not perform CPR, the survival chances of a victim will decrease 7% in every single minute of delay. And European studies done on Cardiac resuscitation show that early initiation of basic lifesaving measures increases the chances of survival up to 2–4 times. Additionally, a Canadian study done on out of hospital cardiac deaths related to drowning found, “most drownings are unwitnessed, occur in public locations, and present with non-shockable initial rhythms, suggesting that treatment should focus on bystander CPR.” 

Learn CPR

What’s the point of all this? Simple. Learn CPR. There is a form of CPR known as hands only, eliminating many concerns of individuals concerning the spread of disease or proper breathing techniques. Regardless of how or to what level you learn CPR, you need to learn it. You might very well save a life one day. To find classes, you can access this course finder, taught by the American Heart Association, or this one, prepared by the American Red Cross. 

Molly Huggins

Molly is a member of our creative team, mom of four water-loving babies, and a fierce advocate for CPR training and really early swim instruction.

The post CPR Saves Lives appeared first on One with the Water.

1. Increased concentration and memory: As mentioned in part one, prolonged exercise increases the amount of oxygen to the brain, resulting in a burst of focusing ability. In addition, one study found that swimming exercise reduced hyperactivity and impulsivity as well as lowering aggressive behavior and increasing short term memory. Translated: Swimming is good for the ADHD brain.
2. Meditative Effect: The meditative effect of swimming has long been documented. Aside from the alternating rhythmic movements, swimming releases neurochemicals in the brain that relieve stress and provide a calming effect. In fact, marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols, Ph.D.,  wrote a whole book on the meditative effect of the water, Blue Mind, Using innovative neuroscience combined with personal experiences, Nuchols refers to the Blue Mind as, “a mildly meditative, relaxed state that we find ourselves in when we are in, on or under water,” reinforcing just how vital our connection to the water really is. 
3. Social Benefits: Children with ADHD need both one-on-one guidance and a fairly rigid structure, and a swim team can be just the right opportunity to provide both. By competing against his or her self while participating in the support and encouragement of the team, swimmers, much like Michael Phelps did, can use swimming to improve both focus and discipline.

The bottom line? Swimming is wildly beneficial for children with ADHD, and a key strategy in the larger toolbox of parenting a child with ADHD. Register with us today for our premium swim lessons to help you unlock this effective tool for your child.

Molly Huggins

Molly is a member of our creative team, mom of four water-loving babies, and a fierce advocate for CPR training and really early swim instruction.

The post Swimming with ADHD: Part 2 appeared first on One with the Water.