Originally Posted by madeinuk
... I consider praise to be complimenting someone their achievements as opposed to their God given attributes.

I think that it is entirely healthy to tell a child that they are intelligent (when they are).

I agree completely. I'll add that I believe that children have a right to know important information about themselves, which includes information about how their minds and bodies work. I know that people may disagree, but to me, not telling a child that she's extremely intelligent is very unfair to the kid. So it might make things difficult for her --- so what? It's not the KNOWLEDGE about being different that makes things hard; it's the REALITY about being different. Reality doesn't go away when we ignore it --- it typically gets harder to deal with instead. Plus, not acknowledging a person's abilities (I did NOT say skills) kind of turns them into a dirty secret.