Teaching a growth mindset can be especially powerful for kids who struggle to learn.

Kids with dyslexia and ADHD often spend years doing things that are genuinely difficult for them. They may watch siblings or friends learn to read more easily, finish assignments more quickly, remember things without endless reminders, or simply seem to “get” school in a way that they don't.

It's not surprising that some of our kids eventually begin to believe:

I'm not good at school.

I'm just bad at reading.

I'm not smart.

I can't do this.

Once kids begin to believe those things about themselves, they may avoid challenges, become easily frustrated, or give up before they've really begun.

The good news is that we can intentionally teach our kids a different way of thinking about learning.

We can teach them a growth mindset.

What Is a Growth Mindset for Kids?

A growth mindset is the understanding that our abilities and skills aren't simply fixed—that we can improve through good instruction, effective strategies, practice, feedback, and effort.

A child with a fixed mindset tends to interpret difficulty as evidence of inability:

This is hard, so I must not be good at it.

A child developing a growth mindset learns to think differently:

This is hard because I'm still learning it.

That distinction is especially important for kids with dyslexia, ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and other learning differences.

Our goal isn't to convince kids that everything will eventually become easy.

It's to help them understand:

Difficulty does not mean inability.

If you'd like to understand more about why this matters so much for struggling learners, read How a Growth Mindset Builds Confidence in Kids With Dyslexia and ADHD.

So how do we actually teach a growth mindset to our kids?

1. Teach Your Child That the Brain Can Learn and Change

One of the best ways to teach kids a growth mindset is to help them understand a little bit about how their brains work.

Our brains change as we learn.

When we practice a skill, use a strategy, receive instruction, make mistakes, and try again, our brains are building and strengthening connections.

You don't need to give your kids a neuroscience lecture. Simply help them understand:

Learning actually changes the brain.

This can be particularly encouraging for kids with learning differences.

A diagnosis of dyslexia or ADHD does not mean:

This is everything I will ever be able to do.

It helps explain why certain things are more difficult and can point us toward the kinds of instruction, strategies, and support that help.

You can point out your child's own examples of growth:

“Remember when you couldn't read that kind of word at all? Now you read them all the time.”

“Remember how hard it was to remember your multiplication facts last year?”

“You used to need me beside you for that whole assignment. Now you're doing the first part by yourself.”

These real-life examples help kids understand that they aren't the same learner today that they were six months or a year ago.

2. Teach Your Child About Fixed and Growth Mindsets

Once kids understand that learning changes the brain, you can begin helping them recognize fixed-mindset thinking.

You might explain it this way:

A fixed mindset says:

I'm either good at this or I'm not.

A growth mindset says:

I can get better at this.

Then start noticing fixed-mindset statements together.

When your child says:

“I can't do this.”

you can gently reframe it:

“You can't do it yet.”

When they say:

“I'm terrible at math.”

you might say:

“Math is really hard for you right now. Let's figure out which part is giving you trouble.”

When they say:

“I'm just not a good writer.”

you might respond:

“Writing is difficult for you. But you have great ideas. Let's find a way to make getting those ideas onto paper easier.”

Notice that none of those responses denies the child's experience.

We're not saying:

“No! Math isn't hard!”

They know it is.

We're helping them separate:

This is difficult for me

from

I am incapable.

3. Use the Power of “Yet”

One of the simplest ways to encourage a growth mindset in kids is to add one tiny word:

yet.

I can't read chapter books.

Yet.

I don't know my multiplication facts.

Yet.

I can't do schoolwork independently.

Yet.

“I can't” sounds permanent.

“I can't yet” leaves room for growth.

You don't need to correct your child every time they make a negative statement. In fact, doing that constantly can become annoying pretty quickly!

The goal is simply to help them gradually recognize when they're treating a current struggle as though it were a permanent limitation.

4. Model a Growth Mindset Yourself

One of the most effective ways to teach growth mindset is to let your kids see you learning.

Adults often hide the messy part of learning from kids.

They see us doing things we already know how to do.

Let them see you struggle with something new.

Say things like:

“I don't know how to do this. I'm going to have to figure it out.”

“Well, that didn't work.”

“I made a mistake. Let me try that again.”

“This is taking me longer than I expected.”

“I'm frustrated, so I'm going to take a break and come back to it.”

You're showing your child that competent adults don't know how to do everything.

They learn.

They make mistakes.

They ask for help.

They change strategies.

They try again.

That's growth mindset in real life.

5. Change the Way You Praise Your Child

Praise can have a powerful effect on the way kids think about themselves.

It's tempting to say:

“You're so smart!”

And of course, our kids are smart.

But when we continually praise children for being smart, we can unintentionally make being smart something they feel they need to prove.

Then a difficult assignment can become threatening:

If I can't do this, maybe I'm not smart after all.

Instead, notice the things your child did.

“You kept going even when that was frustrating.”

“You remembered to use your strategy.”

“You asked for help instead of giving up.”

“You noticed your mistake and fixed it.”

“You tried a different approach when the first one didn't work.”

“You took a break and came back when you were ready.”

This kind of praise helps children recognize that they have tools they can use when something is difficult.

6. Praise Strategies, Not Just Effort

This is an important distinction—especially for kids with learning differences.

Growth mindset is sometimes reduced to:

Just try harder.

But our kids are often already trying incredibly hard.

A dyslexic child can put tremendous effort into reading and still need explicit, evidence-based reading instruction.

A child with ADHD can genuinely want to remember their assignments and still need external reminders and organizational systems.

A child with dysgraphia can have fantastic ideas and still need speech-to-text or another accommodation to express them.

So instead of always praising effort, notice effective strategies.

“Using that checklist really helped you remember everything today.”

“Breaking the assignment into three smaller pieces made it much more manageable.”

“You realized you were losing focus and moved somewhere quieter.”

“Using speech-to-text helped you get your ideas out without handwriting slowing you down.”

This teaches an incredibly valuable lesson:

When something isn't working, I don't always have to try harder. Sometimes I need to try differently.

7. Let Your Kids See Their Progress

One of the best ways to develop a growth mindset is to help kids notice their own growth.

This is particularly important for struggling learners because progress can be slow.

When we're looking at a skill every single day, it's easy to miss how much has changed.

Pull out something your child wrote six months ago.

Remind them of the book they struggled to read last year.

Point out that they're now completing something independently that once required your constant help.

Say:

“Do you remember when this used to take us an hour?”

or

“Look at what you can do now that you couldn't do at the beginning of the year.”

We want our kids to accumulate evidence:

I can learn.

That evidence builds far more confidence than simply telling them that they're capable.

8. Normalize Mistakes

Kids with learning differences can become extremely sensitive to mistakes.

And it makes sense.

If you've experienced more mistakes, corrections, red marks, forgotten assignments, misspelled words, and wrong answers than the average child, making another mistake may not feel like an exciting “learning opportunity.”

It may feel like more evidence that you're failing.

That's why we need to be thoughtful about the way we respond.

Instead of immediately correcting every mistake, sometimes ask:

“What do you notice?”

“What do you think happened there?”

“What could you try differently?”

“What did that mistake teach you?”

And let your kids see you respond calmly to your own mistakes as well.

Mistakes are information.

They tell us what we understand and what we still need to learn.

9. Give Your Child the Right Level of Challenge

This is one of the most overlooked parts of teaching growth mindset.

Kids can't develop confidence from succeeding at things that are always ridiculously easy.

But they also don't develop confidence by repeatedly attempting work that is far beyond their current ability.

They need an appropriate level of challenge.

For kids with dyslexia and ADHD, this often means separating what they are capable of understanding from what they are currently capable of reading, writing, organizing, or producing independently.

A child may be able to understand seventh-grade science while reading independently at a fourth-grade level.

A child may be capable of discussing complex ideas but unable to write a paragraph without enormous effort.

Accommodations allow us to keep the intellectual challenge appropriate while reducing barriers created by the learning difference.

That gives kids the opportunity to experience:

This was difficult—and I did it.

Those experiences build confidence.

10. Help Your Child Find a Strategy When They're Stuck

Ultimately, one of the most useful growth-mindset habits we can teach our kids is to replace:

“I can't.”

with:

“What can I try?”

Maybe they need to:

• ask for help
• reread the directions
• use a checklist
• break the task into smaller steps
• listen to the text instead of reading it
• use speech-to-text
• take a short break
• move somewhere quieter
• look at an example
• try a different strategy

This gives kids agency.

Instead of seeing themselves as helpless when learning gets difficult, they begin developing a toolbox of responses.

And over time, they begin to learn:

I know what to do when I don't know what to do.

That's a pretty powerful skill.

Growth Mindset Is About More Than Positive Thinking

Teaching a growth mindset isn't about convincing our kids that everything is easy or that they can accomplish anything simply by believing hard enough.

It's about helping them understand themselves as learners.

Some things will be harder for them.

Some skills will take longer to develop.

They may need specialized instruction, accommodations, technology, additional practice, or a completely different approach.

None of those things means they aren't capable.

Our kids need real opportunities to struggle productively, use effective strategies, receive the support they need, and experience themselves making progress.

That's how they begin to replace:

“I can't do this.”

with:

“I don't know how to do this yet. What can I try?”

And that is a mindset that will serve them far beyond the homeschool years.

Growth Mindset Resources

Big Life Journal Known for their best-selling journals for kids and teens as well as beautifully illustrated worksheets and motivational printables.

Mindset by Carol Dweck. Read from the researcher herself about the strategies used to study the amazing impact of a growth mindset on students.

How can you see teaching this growth mindset changing your kids' attitudes and motivation to learn?