1. Practicing needs to be seen as an essential feature of a valued long-term activity. It needs to be regular, preferably daily, but in the early stages for no more than 12–15 minutes per day.
2. Parents intending to supervise home practice would be advised to have an involvement in lessons, in order to pick up suggestions and strategies modelled by the teacher.
3. To be effective, the parental level of involvement in lessons may only need to consist of discussion with and feedback from the teacher, rather than always sitting in. Parental involvement in practice, where present, is likely to be weaned off between the ages of eleven and thirteen.
4. Encourage small-section rather than whole-piece practice.
5. Encouraging with praise should be oriented towards what specific aspects were successful (encouraging learning or task goals) rather than the child seeking to please in general or expecting extrinsic rewards (performance or ego goals).
Check out our goal setting and practice chart page. Goal Setting and Practice Chart