My son will not try anything new if he thinks he will fail. I believe I encourage and praise as much as I can but something is missing. Any tips/advice
I just learned that praise makes them afraid to fail. They want the praise and afraid not to get it. Read Punished by Rewards, Raising Our CHildren, Raising Ourselves, and Mothering magazine article "Getting Our of the Way http://naomialdort.com/articles3.html
Praise makes children want to get more praise so they do the thing that gets it and become fearful of not getting it. Self-esteem actually goes down.