Developing Resilience in Your Child
As much as we want to protect our kids, we cannot prevent the challenges and daily stresses they encounter; but wecan teach them to become more resilient by the ways we encourage them to respond to these challenges. Developingresilience will help them become better equipped to address future challenges and become more successful adults.
Consider these “7 C’s of Resilience” to help your child recognize their abilities and inner resources
1) Competence: the feeling of knowing you can handle a situation effectively.
Help your child focus on their individual strengths
Empower your child to make decisions
2) Confidence: belief in your ownabilities
Tell your child what you like about them
Don’t push your child to take on more than they can handle
3) Connection: close ties to family and community which help create a strong sense of security.
Allow the expression of ALL emotions and offer a listening ear
Foster relationships that will enforce positive messages
4) Character: a set of morals/values to determine right from wrong and to demonstrate a caring attitude.
Demonstrate how behavior affects others; express empathy
Help your child recognize themselves as a caring person
5) Contribution: the ability to make the world a better place.
Stress the importance of serving others by showing generosity
Create opportunities for your child to contribute in specific ways
6) Coping: handling stress and challenges in a positive way.
Model positive coping strategies in your own life and guide your child to develop their own effective coping strategies
Understand that risky behaviors are often attempts to alleviate thestress and pain in kids’ daily lives
7) Control: recognizing the impact your decisions can have on your life.
Communicate that they can control the outcome of their decisions, which will help them realize that they have the ability to bounce back
Use discipline to help your child understand that their actions can produce certain consequences
