Building resilience in children is one of the best things a parent can do. Looking for the best tips to do so? Here are a few expert tips to get you started.
How do you make sure your child makes it through the challenges of life? Resilience is one common term that is popularly used and is an essential skill that we all need to possess to navigate life.
The American Psychological Association defines resilience as the ability to overcome adversity, challenging experiences, trauma, tragedy, threats, and significant sources of stress and be shaped positively by them.
When we teach children to become resilient, they adapt to cope better and overcome life obstacles that are inevitable in their future life.
Many factors contribute to building resilience in children. Lina Bayazid, a seasoned educator and coach, takes us through three key steps to building resilience among children.
Develop a strong relationship with the child
When children experience a reliable, supportive relationship with a parent, caregiver, teacher, or adult, they can navigate problems when they encounter adversity. These supportive relationships provide an opportunity for personalized responsiveness and a cushion against mental disruption.
Children in this kind of environment can discuss their feelings. Your support will help them identify, express, and manage their emotions as developing children. When a child experiences emotional pain and distress and lacks a supportive relationship, they are often lost on how they feel and do not know who to ask for directions.
Build a sense of self-worth and independence
Help your child develop independence by providing opportunities to practice their problem-solving skills. Setting simple and age-appropriate challenges can be an ideal option that children can achieve through games, exercise, and competitive activities.
Older children, for example, can be engaged in activities where they develop responsibility and independence and gain confidence in themselves.
On the other hand, younger children can be offered unsupervised play to give them perceived control. These tasks provide self-regulation and the ability to teach delayed gratification, all necessary skills that they can use to solve their problems from an early age.
Develop regular healthy habits
Having enough sleep, regular physical exercise, and nutritious food all build up adaptive skills in navigating the problems and pressures of life. If the child doesn’t get enough sleep, they cannot be in a capacity to handle the pressures of school life.
Select age-appropriate physical activities for your children that are both healthy and can reduce any stressful scenario that the child may be experiencing.
It is important to model effective coping behavior. Children will copy what they see adults do. Teaching optimism, kindness, and gratitude will give them a winning perspective in life. Teach them to appreciate what they have and who they are.
Building Resilience in Children: An expert’s view
When trying to build resilience in children, you should be careful not to impose a method that may not work on your child. All children are different, and so should the methods you use.
At times, you may require the intervention of an expert — someone with vast experience dealing with children and helping parents and teachers understand their needs.
Look no further than Lina Bayazid, a renowned curricula designer, coach, and trainer, to help you come up with a customized plan for building your child’s resilience.
