ABSTRACT
Childhood is a period of physical and psychological development, built around learning, playing, socializing, exploring and testing out what it's like to be part of the adult world. Developmental psychologists have researched extensively the role of sport in aspects of personal and social development. This chapter offers two case studies to highlight key issues around developmental sport psychology, in the hope that parents, coaches and teachers will both see how complex what they are doing is and how they may need to modify their behaviour in order to maximize the impact of their involvement. Perfectionist concerns tend to be associated with high levels of anxiety and burnout and lower levels of performance. The best way to address the 'faulty' thinking around perfectionism is to give your daughter two things firstly, absolute autonomy about what she wants to do, in terms of practice and performance.
