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4.2.10 Parenting Perfectionists: Scaffolding Failure and Building a Growth Mindset

Perfectionistic gifted children hold themselves to exceptionally high standards, which can ultimately be unrealistic to achieve. As an educator and mother of three gifted perfectionistic children, anecdotes about my own journey with perfectionist and twice-exceptional children will be shared, in addition to evidence-based approaches to perfectionism. This presentation will explore aspects of perfectionism, why perfectionism is problematic and how parents and educators can support children through their perfectionism. It also explores scaffolding failure to help build resilience and how to promote a growth mindset to help overcome the fear of failure that is common in perfectionists.

Author(s):

Kimberley Perry
kcf.perry@gmail.com
Emmanuel Catholic College
Australia

Kimberley Perry is an educator, researcher and mother from Western Australia. Kimberley is a high school science and mathematics teacher at Emmanuel Catholic College, Western Australia. She has a Masters of Gifted Education with a focus on social emotional wellbeing and identity development of gifted children. She is an advocate for gifted children in Western Australia and a committee member of Gifted WA. As a mother of three highly gifted children, she juggles twice exceptionalities, full grade acceleration, anxieties and perfectionism on a daily basis.