Guided Discovery (Age 6-9)
At this age, there are increased opportunities available to youth in the form of physical education, youth sports and after-school programs. In this age, they still relate "effort" to "success" and positive feedback and encouragement are the best ways to enhance self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation. Children at this age will benefit greatly by moving their bodies in many different ways. They will learn best with little instruction and modelling. The will discover in which ways they move best on their own as they complete all movements over and over. By the age of 10, they will have improved enough on their own and then they can begin to get some formal instruction. Many children who lack basic fundamental movement skills can "catch-up" to normally developing children if they are identified at this age. Activities should be fun and engaging so that young children don't view the activities as "work". You can also promote intrinsic motivation through individual improvement and goal setting.
Always praise effort rather than talent to increase motivation to continue to try their best and improve at the fastest rate possible. Your child could be the fastest because they have developed early and praising them for their speed (eg. You won the race! Wow you are so fast!) could lead them to not work as hard because they don't value effort. But more importantly when the other kids catch up to them or when they are faced with competition at the next level they will be more likely to select easier competitions because that's when they were praised for being fast. This is the same with playing sports, if you praise them for being so good rather than working hard then when they become an average player at a higher level and are receiving less praise then they will want to return to the lower level. Praise them for effort however and they will want to continue to work hard no matter where they stand in their team or against opponents.
Always praise effort rather than talent to increase motivation to continue to try their best and improve at the fastest rate possible. Your child could be the fastest because they have developed early and praising them for their speed (eg. You won the race! Wow you are so fast!) could lead them to not work as hard because they don't value effort. But more importantly when the other kids catch up to them or when they are faced with competition at the next level they will be more likely to select easier competitions because that's when they were praised for being fast. This is the same with playing sports, if you praise them for being so good rather than working hard then when they become an average player at a higher level and are receiving less praise then they will want to return to the lower level. Praise them for effort however and they will want to continue to work hard no matter where they stand in their team or against opponents.