{"id":42898,"date":"2021-07-27T10:42:20","date_gmt":"2021-07-27T14:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=42898"},"modified":"2021-07-30T13:50:52","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T17:50:52","slug":"autonomy-in-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Competence, Relatedness, and Autonomy in Children"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Why are children today so easily driven to distractions such as social media? How can you teach competence, relatedness, and autonomy to children?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his book <em>Indistractable,<\/em> Nir Eyal discusses how to raise <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/distraction-in-children\/\">indistractable children<\/a>. He says that it&#8217;s not the technology&#8217;s fault for distracting children\u2014distractions are caused by internal discomfort. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s important to raise children with autonomy, competence, and relatedness so they&#8217;ll be ready to take on their adult years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to learn how to raise children to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/becoming-indistractable\/\">become indistractable<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Understand and Reduce Internal Triggers<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The first part of teaching your child to be indistractable is figuring out what their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/external-trigger-vs-internal-trigger\/\">internal triggers<\/a> are and how to reduce them. Like adults, children are usually driven to distraction by <em>internal discomfort<\/em>. Often, their discomfort will be related to one of the three human psychological needs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Autonomy: <\/strong>control over ourselves and our choices<\/li><li><strong>Competence: <\/strong>learning, improving, growing, and mastering different skills&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Relatedness:<\/strong> feeling that we\u2019re important to others, and others are important to us<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>When you or your children are lacking in any of these three needs, you\u2019ll feel restlessness, anxiety, hopelessness, or depression\u2014all feelings that can trigger distraction and unhealthy habits such as too much gaming, too much time on social media, and so on.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By ensuring that your children have opportunities to gain autonomy, competence, and relatedness, you can help them better balance their online and real-world lives.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Create More Opportunities for Autonomy<\/strong> in Children<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Many parents feel that they need to plan out their children\u2019s days and enforce strict rules around technology to prevent distraction\u2014however, you should be <em>loosening<\/em> your control and granting more opportunities for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-early-childhood\/\">autonomy in children<\/a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Studies have found that children may actually <em>lose the ability to control their attention<\/em> when they\u2019re constantly managed by adults. If you look at American schools you\u2019ll notice that students are managed at every moment of the day\u2014their homework needs to be done a certain way, everything has a due date, their movement is dictated by bells, they\u2019re punished with detention, and so on.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Surveys show that American teens are under <em>10 times<\/em> more restrictions than most adults, and under <em>two times<\/em> more restrictions than Marines and convicts.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Many children struggle with distraction in school and when doing schoolwork because they don\u2019t have enough autonomy to feel motivated or interested. They escape to places where they <em>can <\/em>feel a sense of autonomy, such as in the creativity of social media or the world-building of video games. <strong>The problem isn\u2019t technology. The problem is the alternative to technology\u2014an environment devoid of autonomy <\/strong><strong><em>that we adults have created<\/em><\/strong><strong>. <\/strong>Ironically, many parents respond to their children spending too much time online by imposing <em>more<\/em> rules. This further restricts the child\u2019s autonomy, exacerbating the problem. Instead, discuss your child\u2019s leisure time and use of technology in a way that supports their autonomy.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Shortform Example: Support Age-Appropriate Autonomy&nbsp;<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of dictating exactly how and when your child can use technology, help them <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/when-to-say-no\/\">set boundaries<\/a> in a way that gives them options.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>For example, you might say, \u201cYou have the whole afternoon free, but I can only let you play on my iPad for one hour. Would you rather have that hour now, or later?\u201d&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>For teenagers who are a little better at setting boundaries, discuss the harmful effects of too much screen time so that they can make their own informed decisions about their device use.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>You can supplement this by <em>inviting<\/em> them to take part in non-tech activities with you, such as taking a walk or going to a museum.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Create More Opportunities for Competence<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/feedback-cycle\/\">The second way<\/a> you can reduce your child\u2019s internal discomfort is by ensuring that they have adequate opportunities to feel <em>competent<\/em>. <strong>This is your responsibility as a parent, because many children don\u2019t develop feelings of competence in school.<\/strong> Feeling competent and experiencing growth in the classroom is harder than ever, especially with the rise of standardized testing. This affects many types of children:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Children who are strong in some subjects and weak in others must focus more on improving their shortcomings than celebrating their achievements.&nbsp;<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creativity-in-children\/\">Creative children<\/a> don\u2019t receive recognition for their talents or support in developing them.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Children develop at <em>vastly<\/em> different rates, but standardized tests don\u2019t take variable development into account.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In these environments, only children who develop quickly and in the \u201cright\u201d ways can feel competent. Students who <em>don\u2019t <\/em>meet the standard, despite their work, are soon convinced that competence isn\u2019t possible for them, and they lose motivation and interest in school. They escape to apps, games, and websites where they do feel a sense of growth and accomplishment. This is why moving up between levels, getting likes, and gaining followers can be so addictive\u2014it feels like a form of achievement.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Shortform Example: Create Feelings of Competence<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>You likely can\u2019t change the testing system in your child\u2019s school, but you <\/strong><strong><em>can<\/em><\/strong><strong> help your child find activities that allow them to feel a sense of achievement and progress.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>For example, you can teach your child to cook, find a class or workshop for your child who likes to paint, encourage your child to sign up for a challenge aligned with their interests like writing contests, or help them find volunteer work that interests them and develops their skills.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-power-of-moments\/chapters-7-9\">Read our summary of <em>The Power of Moments<\/em><\/a><em> <\/em>to learn different ways to show your children progress they\u2019ve made and develop their feelings of competence.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Create More Opportunities for Relatedness<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Lastly, make sure that you\u2019re allowing your children to balance their online interactions with unstructured, face-to-face time with their peers. <strong>Children\u2019s ability to join in \u201cspontaneous play\u201d is seriously restricted these days. <\/strong>You\u2019ll hardly ever see a group of children playing outside together or roaming the neighborhood to see what fun there is to be had. This is largely due to anxious parenting\u2014children are kept close to home so they don\u2019t get hurt or into trouble. As a result, many children and teens spend a lot of their free time at home, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-connect-with-people\/\">connecting with others<\/a> virtually through games or the Internet.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In interacting with people online, children can easily pick and choose whom they wish to communicate with or which communities they want to be part of\u2014meaning they <em>aren\u2019t<\/em> learning the essential skill of getting along with different <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/three-types-of-people\/\">types of people<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Interestingly, this means that too much socializing online is both a <em>cause<\/em> and a <em>consequence<\/em> of not being able to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/eckhart-tolle-relationships-how-to-be-present\/\">connect with others<\/a> in real life.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, online communities can be very positive, especially for children who feel isolated at school or other areas of their lives. They can talk through their issues with people in these communities, and as many communities are based on common interests, they can find people with whom they identify.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>For example, the website Reddit has communities for everything from baking, to learning guitar, to managing chronic diseases, to learning about history.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>While some time interacting online is positive, encourage your children to have face-to-face playtime with their peers. <\/strong>This might look like meeting up to walk around the mall, having classmates over for an afternoon of playing in the yard, or encouraging your child to join in pickup games of basketball after school. These real-life environments counterbalance time online and teach children <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-interact-with-people\/\">how to interact with others<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why are children today so easily driven to distractions such as social media? How can you teach competence, relatedness, and autonomy to children? In his book Indistractable, Nir Eyal discusses how to raise indistractable children. He says that it&#8217;s not the technology&#8217;s fault for distracting children\u2014distractions are caused by internal discomfort. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s important to raise children with autonomy, competence, and relatedness so they&#8217;ll be ready to take on their adult years. Keep reading to learn how to raise children to become indistractable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":43194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,9],"tags":[428],"class_list":["post-42898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parenting","category-psychology","tag-indistractable","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Competence, Relatedness, and Autonomy in Children - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Want to know how to instill competence, relatedness, and autonomy in your children? Here&#039;s Nir Eyal&#039;s advice from his book Indistractable.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Competence, Relatedness, and Autonomy in Children\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Want to know how to instill competence, relatedness, and autonomy in your children? Here&#039;s Nir Eyal&#039;s advice from his book Indistractable.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-27T14:42:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-30T17:50:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/child-reading.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"994\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"591\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hannah Aster\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hannah Aster\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hannah Aster\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f39f52830e4f7039a16e45d12354542f\"},\"headline\":\"Competence, Relatedness, and Autonomy in Children\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-27T14:42:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-07-30T17:50:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/\"},\"wordCount\":1281,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/child-reading.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Indistractable\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Parenting\",\"Psychology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/\",\"name\":\"Competence, Relatedness, and Autonomy in Children - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/child-reading.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-27T14:42:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-07-30T17:50:52+00:00\",\"description\":\"Want to know how to instill competence, relatedness, and autonomy in your children? Here's Nir Eyal's advice from his book Indistractable.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/child-reading.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/child-reading.jpg\",\"width\":994,\"height\":591},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Competence, Relatedness, and Autonomy in Children\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f39f52830e4f7039a16e45d12354542f\",\"name\":\"Hannah Aster\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0302cb2690b70a21639bc6873e587f42d39d02385b7e59d8efd0d3e000ae7681?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0302cb2690b70a21639bc6873e587f42d39d02385b7e59d8efd0d3e000ae7681?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Hannah Aster\"},\"description\":\"Hannah is a seasoned writer and editor who started her journey with Shortform nearly five years ago. She grew up reading mostly fiction books but transitioned to non-fiction writing when she started her travel website in 2018. When she's not writing or traveling, you can find Hannah working on home reno projects, crafting, or taking care of plants.\",\"knowsAbout\":[\"Graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English and minors in professional and creative writing\"],\"jobTitle\":\"SEO Team Lead\",\"worksFor\":\"Shortform\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/hannah\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Competence, Relatedness, and Autonomy in Children - Shortform Books","description":"Want to know how to instill competence, relatedness, and autonomy in your children? Here's Nir Eyal's advice from his book Indistractable.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Competence, Relatedness, and Autonomy in Children","og_description":"Want to know how to instill competence, relatedness, and autonomy in your children? Here's Nir Eyal's advice from his book Indistractable.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-07-27T14:42:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-07-30T17:50:52+00:00","og_image":[{"width":994,"height":591,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/child-reading.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Hannah Aster","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hannah Aster","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/"},"author":{"name":"Hannah Aster","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f39f52830e4f7039a16e45d12354542f"},"headline":"Competence, Relatedness, and Autonomy in Children","datePublished":"2021-07-27T14:42:20+00:00","dateModified":"2021-07-30T17:50:52+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/"},"wordCount":1281,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/child-reading.jpg","keywords":["Indistractable"],"articleSection":["Parenting","Psychology"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/","name":"Competence, Relatedness, and Autonomy in Children - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/child-reading.jpg","datePublished":"2021-07-27T14:42:20+00:00","dateModified":"2021-07-30T17:50:52+00:00","description":"Want to know how to instill competence, relatedness, and autonomy in your children? Here's Nir Eyal's advice from his book Indistractable.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/child-reading.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/child-reading.jpg","width":994,"height":591},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/autonomy-in-children\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Competence, Relatedness, and Autonomy in Children"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f39f52830e4f7039a16e45d12354542f","name":"Hannah Aster","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0302cb2690b70a21639bc6873e587f42d39d02385b7e59d8efd0d3e000ae7681?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0302cb2690b70a21639bc6873e587f42d39d02385b7e59d8efd0d3e000ae7681?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Hannah Aster"},"description":"Hannah is a seasoned writer and editor who started her journey with Shortform nearly five years ago. She grew up reading mostly fiction books but transitioned to non-fiction writing when she started her travel website in 2018. When she's not writing or traveling, you can find Hannah working on home reno projects, crafting, or taking care of plants.","knowsAbout":["Graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English and minors in professional and creative writing"],"jobTitle":"SEO Team Lead","worksFor":"Shortform","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/hannah\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/child-reading.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42898"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43487,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42898\/revisions\/43487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}