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Jo Maloney

Unlocking Success in Children in Early Childhood: Strategies for Autonomy, Prosocial Skills, Learning, and Resilience



Creating a foundation for success in children goes beyond the surface—it delves into cultivating essential skills and behaviours that shape their interactions, social skills, psychological resilience and overall learning journey. To embark on this empowering mission, we can employ a range of supportive strategies.


Understanding Basic Psychological Needs: Building Blocks for Success

At the heart of fostering success and skill development lies the acknowledgment of basic psychological needs—relatedness, autonomy, and competence. These needs act as the driving force behind the motivation to acquire new skills, develop prosocial behaviours, and build psychological resilience.


  1. Autonomy:

  • Fulfilled when responsible for our own actions and acting with free will.

  • Satisfied autonomy leads to authenticity and a sense of self-determination.

  • Frustrated autonomy may result in undesirable directions, feelings of control, or external pressures.

  1. Relatedness:

  • Centres around connection with others, fostering a sense of belonging and reciprocal care.

  • Satisfied relatedness creates a feeling of connection and inclusion.

  • Frustrated relatedness leads to feelings of exclusion and alienation.

  1. Competence:

  • Perceived effectiveness and capability in mastering activities and tasks.

  • Satisfied competence enables full engagement, skill extension, and confidence.

  • Frustrated competence results in feelings of incompetence, impacting performance and motivation.

Intrinsic Motivation: The Catalyst for Success

Satisfying the needs of autonomy, relatedness, and competence paves the way for intrinsic motivation—a powerful force driving behaviours for the sheer pleasure, satisfaction, and excitement associated with the action itself. This intrinsic motivation, unlike its extrinsic counterpart, empowers children to act independently, boosting psychological resilience and safeguarding against people-pleasing tendencies.


Nurturing Intrinsic Motivation: Strategies for Success

To support the fulfillment of basic psychological needs, enhance intrinsic motivation, and develop pro-social skills consider implementing these strategies:

  1. Build Connections:

  • Foster connections between educators and children through playfulness, presence, and eye contact.

  1. Display Empathy:

  • Show empathy for 'mistaken' behaviour, believing in a child's capacity to learn a different way.

  1. Foster Curiosity:

  • Ignite curiosity through inquisitive questioning and intriguing environmental prompts.

  1. Focus on Progress:

  • Concentrate on individual progress rather than comparisons to encourage a sense of achievement.

  1. Highlight Strategies:

  • Reinforce learning by highlighting the strategies children used to be successful and their potential future applications.

  1. Embrace Individual Strengths:

  • Focus on unique individual strengths and their practical application.

  1. Teach Missing Skills:

  • Support intrinsic motivation by teaching missing skills indicated by children's behaviour.

  1. Create Positive Experiences:

  • Engineer opportunities for children to experience positive emotions.

  1. Offer Supportive Choices:

  • Provide two choices that support success, fostering a sense of control.

  1. Avoid Extrinsic Rewards:

  • Steer clear of extrinsic rewards such as general praise, stickers, or stamps, promoting intrinsic motivation.


By weaving these strategies into the early learning environment, we can empower children to develop a strong sense of identity through intrinsic motivation, enhance their social skills, embrace self-regulation, cultivate perseverance, build resilience, nurture problem-solving abilities, and foster more flexible thinking—laying the groundwork for current and future success that allows skills to be developed and built upon.

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