My father did a lot of damage because he never let me finish a sentence without correcting me. And then when I tried so hard to get it all right, he STILL interupted me telling me to add bigger words. That's hard on a child, they just want to feel heard and engage. I was cleaning out my desk and happened across a very, very old report card when I was in first grade. The comment was that I needed to communicate better. The sad part in finding that was because my father made me literally fear talking to adults. So, when he saw that comment on the report card he was even HARDER on me. That made me worse and I started to trip over my words and hated talking to adults even more.

It's so important to help young children love learning instead of fear that if they don't get it perfect they will be hurt somehow.