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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What do you do for a child with zero motivation. I mean, he literally has said to me, "Mom, if I can get a C with hardly any work, I'm comfortable getting a C if I have to work hard to get a B or an A, it's just not worth it."

We are not talking about a child who can't achieve. He's gifted. [/quote]

I have a gifted child who is a B student. He could ace everything, but he expends a tremendous amount of effort dealing with day-to-day stuff. Getting B's is coasting academically for him, and it's not worth it for him to try to get A's because he's already expending a lot of effort on school. Look at the whole picture - how much effort is your child spending on other stuff? Give him credit for the effort it takes to get his stuff together, remember his homework, interact appropriately with his peers, or any areas that he may find more challenging than normal. Be thankful that because he's gifted, he can relax a bit with the academics and put effort into those other areas.

I also believe in extrinsic motivation. It would be nice if we could all be internally motivated for absolutely everything we needed to do. Most of us are not. Adults often build in extrinsic motivation to their daily lives - shop for a new outfit if I exercise regularly, grab a coffee from Starbucks on the way into the office on Friday if I've managed to take my lunch every day that week, etc. Model that for your child so he has a way of giving himself incentives to do the hard stuff.[/quote]

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