There’s some research supporting the unhelpfulness of too much praise. Alfie Kohn covered a lot of it in his book Punished by Rewards: http://www.alfiekohn.org/punished-rewards/ which I read back when it was knew and it influenced a lot of my thinking, though I never convinced anyone at my kids’ schools to back off on awards. This covers some of the same ground, but is more geared towards teaching younger kids: http://www.amazon.com/How-Talk-Kids-Can-Learn/dp/0684824728. I learned to observe what my kids were up to, rather than praise it.