Tag Archives: challenges

How family and community create resilience in kids

28/10/2015

Anxiety, Fears and Phobias , Behaviours and Discipline , Parenting Skills , Resilience and Self-confidence , Social Skills

Changes Psychology Team

Resilience in our children ultimately will be something that comes from within themselves, but our support and that of the support networks around them will aid that growth and offer them ongoing places for advice, guidance and help.

Obtaining support from other people and experiencing some predictability in life promotes resilience by building a child’s sense of being valued, competent and having some control over situations that may arise.

Humans are naturally sociable creatures and helping our children connect with other people strengthens resilience by providing the opportunity for social support and the belief that such support is available when needed.

It can be helpful to discuss with your child who they identify as people they can access support from and how they would get the assistance they need in various situations.
- Encourage your child to pick at least five people then assign each person to a finger or thumb on one hand. This can help your child remember who those support people are, e.g. my teacher is my pointer finger.

Role play various scenarios with your child to help them figure out who they would contact for support, how they would contact them, what they would say to explain the situation, etc. This can help build your child’s confidence in managing situations that may arise.

Encourage your child to be a friend in order to make and keep friends. Being involved in social, sporting, cultural, school, or spiritual events and groups can also promote a child’s sense of belonging, self worth, and belief that they are surrounded by people who will support them when in need.

How to promote resilience in kids

26/10/2015

Anxiety, Fears and Phobias , Behaviours and Discipline , Grief and Loss , Parenting Skills , Resilience and Self-confidence , Social Skills

Changes Psychology Team

Not everyone displays the same characteristics of resilience, however there are a number of predictors of resilience which can be encouraged and taught.

People with good resilience adapt to difficult situations and stress by using a variety of resources and protective factors that are either external-in the environment around the person, or internal -personal attributes or beliefs. Parents can help their child develop resilience by promoting a mixture of both external and internal factors.

External factors that have positive influences on a child’s resilience include:

Establishing and maintaining connections with other people, e.g. family, friends, community group, school.
Having caring, competent adults in their life
Experiencing success in areas of interest including sport, music, arts
Helping others
Having predictable but flexible routines
Being involved in cultural beliefs and practices
Participating in school events

Internal factors that have positive influence on a child’s resilience include:

Problem solving skills
Emotional and behavioural regulation
A positive sense of self-worth
Believing that life has meaning and hope
Feeling valued for an ability or skill
Being aware of, and able to implement self care
Experiencing success with setting reasonable goals and moving toward them
Learning from experience
Accepting that change is inevitable and can be positive

Why we need more Resilience in our children

24/10/2015

Anxiety, Fears and Phobias , Behaviours and Discipline , Grief and Loss , Parenting Skills , Resilience and Self-confidence , Social Skills

Changes Psychology Team

Resilience is a skill that can be learned and practiced throughout life and a skill we need to be teaching our children.

Teaching children resilience facilitates their ability to cope with difficulties, whether they be daily events like stress of schoolwork, or infrequent trauma like losing a loved one.

Some people face more adversity in life than others, but the ability to cope and draw on protective factors benefits every child.

Research suggests children with low resilience tend to be more socially isolated, have poorer social skills, be more vulnerable to mental health problems, be more likely to become involved in criminal activities and/or violence, experience school failure, demonstrate challenging behaviours, have poorer physical health, lower self esteem, and hold a negative view of the future.

Children with higher levels of resilience have healthy attachments and connections with others, feel valued, believe in their own abilities and strengths, learn to set realistic goals, have healthy self esteem, are both physically and psychologically healthier, and have a positive and hopeful outlook for the future.

While the degree of resilience differs between individuals and circumstances, it makes sense then that parents and significant adults in children and young people’s lives help promote protective factors that can increase our children’s ability to cope with situations and successfully adapt for the future.

What is resilience and can it be learned?

22/10/2015

Anxiety, Fears and Phobias , Behaviours and Discipline , Grief and Loss , Resilience and Self-confidence , Social Skills

Changes Psychology Team

Resilience has become a common term used when talking about how children, and adults, cope in the face of adversity.

Resilience is having the ability to ‘bounce back’ and adapt to challenges and stressors in life. It is an important skill to have as we will all experience difficult times, setbacks, and stress. Resilience doesn’t mean a person has no emotional reactions to events – it is normal and healthy to feel emotional pain and distress when either we experience difficulties or hear about others’ traumatic experiences.

Instead, resilience involves acknowledging our emotions and implementing effective thoughts and behaviours to build our capacity to cope with life events and hardships. It is not a trait humans are born with but rather one that can be developed and learned over time, and a wonderful life skill to pass on to our children.

People who are resilient tend to have a higher sense of self-worth, and be more confident and hopeful. It is not however necessary,nor advisable, to throw our kids into traumatic situations in order to build up their resilience.

Most children living in supportive families and communities learn ways to adapt to situations they face in life which can help them cope better when they face challenging or threatening circumstances. However, there are a number of things parents, teachers and significant adults can do to help promote resilience in children.

More ideas to encourage Good Risk in Play

20/10/2015

Anxiety, Fears and Phobias , Parenting Skills , Resilience and Self-confidence , Social Skills

Changes Psychology Team

What are some real life ways we can encourage a healthy amount of risk in our child’s play for their benefit?

Teaching your child to use real tools

There are many child sized versions of objects such as hammers, shovels, watering cans, etc. Show your child the right way to use these tools and give them opportunities to practice.

Changes Psychology Good risk in play 3 Backing off at the playground

Let your child try things out. A child will only go as high as she/he can get down from so don’t lift them higher – let them work up to it on their own. This is also useful in developing social skills as children will learn to negotiate with other children about sharing the equipment, respecting others’ safety as well as their own, and joining in group play.

Allowing more freedom as children grow older and mature

Talk with your child about helping them set up challenges, e.g. walk home from school without you. With greater risk comes greater responsibility though so also help your child plan what they can do if they feel uncomfortable or threatened during such challenges.

Getting ideas from friends, community groups, and your own children about activities you can support your children to try

For example, Natureplay QLD www.natureplayqld.org.au/ provides ideas for a variety of “missions” or adventures in the outdoors for children of different age levels. Kids can also have their own passports (order for free) to record their missions and discoveries. Scouts, little athletics, team or individual sports all provide challenges for your kids to try.

Play is an essential component, and recognised human right, in children’s everyday lives, but recent trends in western societal perceptions of danger and safety have been found to hamper optimal development, and experts are now advising that children need age-appropriate risks in their play in order to learn and practice important life skills. This poses a challenge to parents and carers as to how we can encourage children to challenge themselves in play whilst managing potential hazards.

Now’s the time to start thinking about the balance of risk and play in your child’s world.

Brussoni, M., Olsen, L., Pike, I. & Sleet, D. (2012). Risky Play and Children’s Safety: Balancing Priorities for Optimal Child Development. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 9. pp 3134-3138.

Brussoni, M. Gibbons, R., Gray, C., Ishikawa, T., Sandseter, E., Bienenstock, A., Chabot, G., Fuselli, P., Herrington, S., Janssen, I., Pickett, W., Power, M., Stranger, N., Sampson, M., & Tremblay, M. (2015). What is the relationship between risky outdoor play and health in children? A systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 12. pp 6423-6454.

Hewitt-Taylor, J., Heaslip, V. (2012). Protecting children or creating vulnerability? Community Practitioner, 85 (12). p 31-33.

International Play Association. UN convention on the rights of the child (CRC). http://ipaworld.org/tag/united-nations/ Retrieved 23rd Sept 2015.

Kable, J. Outdoor play: when the benefits outweigh the risks. http://www.letthechildrenplay.net/2010/07/outdoor-play-when-benefits-outweigh.html. Retrieved 20th Sept 2015.

Kidsafe NSW. Challenging play – Risky! http://www.kidsafensw.org/playground-safety/challenging-play-risky/. Retrieved 15th Sept 2015.

Knight, L. (2015). 5 ways to let a little more risk into your child’s day (and why that’s a good thing)http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2015/01/16/5-ways-to-let-a-little-more-risk-into-your-childs-day-and-what-thats-a-good-thing/. Retrieved 20th Sept 2015.

Sandseter, E. B. H. (2007). Categorizing risky play – How can we identify risk-taking in children’s play? European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 15(2), 237-252.

Why Some Risk in Play is Good!

13/10/2015

Anxiety, Fears and Phobias , Parenting Skills , Resilience and Self-confidence , Social Skills

Changes Psychology Team

Children benefit from some risk in play. The aim should be not to remove risk but help our children manage it and learn from their experiences.

Kidsafe suggests that children need opportunities to incorporate elements of risk in play in order to:

Develop skills in negotiating the environment around them;
Learn how to use playground equipment safely and for its designed purpose
Develop coordination and orientation skills
Take acceptable risks, and
Learn about the consequences (positive and negative) of risk taking.

Taking risks can lead to both positive or negative outcomes for children and can elicit varying degrees of anxiety in parents in the process.

Risks with negative outcomes are referred to as “hazards”. These are things that are not obvious to a child that often result in injury. An example of a hazard may be a puddle of water on slippery tiles.

Risks with positive outcomes are referred to as “challenges, adventures, and opportunities”. They are activities in which the child can judge his or her abilities and decide whether to take the risk. Examples may be balancing on a log, using a shovel to dig in the garden, or building a tall tower out of cardboard boxes.