Praising the child

"Kind words can be powerful motivators, but only if you praise the right things. Praising someone's ability to work hard is more effective than gushing about how brilliant she is...Being praised for effort or other aspects of performance directly under your control leads to resilience, while being praised for being smart or some other innate abilities can lead to feelings of helplessness or self-doubt when a setback occurs. The ideal is to help someone think positively but realistically about achieving goals while praising their hard work. When praised for persistence, those who think the path ahead will be difficult invest more effort." 
- Heidi Grant Halvorson in Psychology Today (March 2013) 

As a parent I will need to remind myself of this.  I don't believe it is actually that pertinent in early childhood but I can see how being praised for effort during grade school years could be a positive motivator.  As I child, I was rarely praised (because my efforts did not produce "A"s) so in being praised only for attaining the highest grade possible and not achieving, I then began to not achieve anything at all.