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Parents may attribute a child's lack of follow-through to laziness or a lack of skill.

In reality, most kids want to succeed, but their brains haven't fully developed the skill of perseverance.

The brain puts in effort over long periods when it anticipates small, achievable wins on route to a goal.

As children experience progress tied to their efforts, they develop optimism and confidence for perseverance.

A common frustration for parents is watching a bright, capable child give up on a long-term project or struggle to maintain effort in a challenging class. A lot of the time, the parent knows the child wants to succeed—whether by getting good grades mastering an instrument, making a sports team, or sticking with a community service project. Yet their follow-through often seems to vanish when things get tough.

Often, parents attribute children’s inconsistent follow-through to a lack of willpower, laziness, or deficient intelligence or aptitude. But a look at the neuroscience of their developing brains yields a different—and far more hopeful—analysis.

Perseverance Is Still Under Construction

As a neurologist and former classroom teacher, I’ve seen how an understanding of the developing brain transforms the way we interpret children’s behavior.

The good news here relates to your children’s actively developing executive functions. Understanding what their brains are going through can broaden your perspective, boost your optimism, and reignite both yours’ and their efforts.

Like the other executive functions, perseverance—that is, the ability to sustain effort for long-term goals—remains under construction throughout a child's school years. As a parent, you play a........

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