We all have to face challenges in life, there will be tough times in life. And the ability to bounce back after the hard times is resilience. Building child resilience framework will frame your child’s strong character with a positive outlook towards life. Resilience is very important in today’s world. As every individual has to deal with stress, anxiety, negativity and other challenges in life. Resilience help to stand straight again after setbacks in life. It navigate the obstacles and challenges and give strength to bounce back.
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In this digital era where global business is evolving each day because of new inventions and advancements of technology. At the same time failures and risks are part of the game. One should always be prepare to face the challenges and hardships of life. As quick as the economy fluctuates, one should also learn to recover quickly. Resilience is crucial for individuals. It is also essential for organizations to adapt effectively to new changes. So that, organizations can thrive during intense adversity. When your mental health is taxing, only resilience can help you to cope up with the stress.
Building resilience in early childhood is very important. This comprehensive building child resilience framework will unlock child resilience building strategies. Explore the psychological foundation of resilience, a necessary mindset for everyday life. This post will provide you with an actionable plan. It will help you develop a sturdy set of practices. These practices teach kids to spring back from setbacks.
A person raising and nurturing a child will want to avoid hurdles for their child. But in life we have to accept the fact that everyone has to face challenges. Thus, parents, guardians or teachers should model resilience behaviors. Let’s teach our children that endurance is not the point. They should adapt to the new changes with grace and confidence. And they should thrive on myriad challenges of life.
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Why Child Resilience Matters?
Before building child resilience framework, let’s get a clear view of child resilience theory. Resilience is not any particular character of human being that can be inherited. This is a process that must develop from beginning. Parents and teachers should emphasize on developing the capacity of children to adapt to the surrounding with internal strength. This is a dynamic process that grows more over time.
A child’s growth depends on various factors and aspect. It involves physical, mental and emotional growth of the child. And emotional resilience in children gives strength to deal with stress and trauma.
Benefits Of Resilience For Child Development
- Resilient kids learn to regulate their feelings, as they have control over their emotions. That make them feel safe and secure.
- When children learn to bounce back in life, they never leave hope and are always optimistic.
- Resilient children are never afraid of adjusting to new situations like joining new school or moving to a new place. They are very much flexible in life.
- Each time a child overcome the hurdles, their confidence level increases that boost their self-esteem.
- Resilience acts as a shield for children. They keep negative thoughts away. They believe that negativity doesn’t stay for long.
Common Obstacles To Resilience
Building child resilience framework will help children to cope up with their current challenges in life. It also makes them emotionally and mentally strong for later in life. But there are some barriers to resilience too in early childhood. There are many factors and surrounding circumstances that causes obstacles for resilience to develop. Like physical health, financial stability, lack of care or weak relationships faced during childhood.
The severity of hardships are different for different children that can cause the variations in resilient outcomes. Over protection from parents as well lack of support from parents and surrounding both can hinder resilience. Children who had suffered from maltreatment, discrimination or abuse can face difficulty in bouncing back.
Isolation or having weak relationships around a child can lead to loneliness and lack of motivation is quite depressing. This make children mentally weak to face the adversities of life.
The National Library Of Medicine, USA published an article on what factors are linked to resilient outcomes. It focused on how child resilience is measured after conducting a systematic review.
According to the statistics of National Survey Of Children’s Health, almost 35 million children experienced serious childhood traumas. These children faced adversities during childhood.
Symbol of peace, famous anti-apartheid activist and politician Nelson Mandela famous quote :-
“Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”
– Nelson Mandela
It reminds us that a person’s success is not only measured on the basis of his achievements. It is the count of bouncing back after facing the setbacks. So it is the resilience that matters.
What Shapes Child Resilience?
Child Resilience building strategies depends on so many factors. The interplay of those factors shapes child resilience. As a child’s development is highly influenced by genetic factors. Hence resilience is build by the influence of both genetic and environmental factors. It has also been observed that environmental factors also affects the gene of an individual that impact on his/her trait.
The popular statement, ” What surround us shapes us” also sheds light on child resilience building strategies. During childhood a child is surrounded by parents, teachers, people in their social network. All of their reciprocation impacts a child’s development.
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Role of family, school and community in building child resilience framework
We now understand that parents, teachers and everyone around a child play a vital role in a child’s development. They are crucial in fostering resilience in children.
- The strong bond and love in the family created a secure attachment and support for a child. This help children to realize their worth.
- When parents tackle life’s hurdles with calmness, they model resilience. By handling challenges in a controlled way, they teach their children to be resilient.
- School is the place where children get the opportunities to develop their social skills. Teachers have a great influence in building child resilience framework.
- In school, children get numerous opportunities to explore, try new ideas and learn through them.
- Strengthening social networks like meeting with extended family and friends widens the horizon of caring people. The additional love and warmth enhances a child’s emotional resilience.
Emotional and cognitive factors also contribute in building resilience in kids. The mechanism to cope up with the emotional challenges make a child resilient. The ability to understand other’s emotion is also required which is an important strategy to build resilience.
Cognitive flexibility is one of the important factor while shaping child’s resilience. It is the ability of a child to observe/handle situations in different perspectives. Absorbing the situation and ushering different ways to solve a problem is indeed a vital skill for children. This helps children to solve problem on their own.
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Key Components For Building Child Resilience Framework
So far you have gained enough idea about the importance of building resilience in children. Better understanding about the influential factors. And the barriers to developing resilience are also stated above. Hence move ahead to get a clear concept of child resilience framework.
The resilience framework is based on five pillars that forms the strong base of resilience in children. Here are the 5 ways to build resilience in children.
Supportive Relationships
A child is like a flower which blooms nicely when nurtured with love and warmth. A child’s strong relationships with parents, friends, or relatives create a sense of security. They also provide inner satisfaction to the child. Children develops resilience when they have adults around them who give unconditional love and support. As supportive relationships enhances the courage of the child to fight back any tough situations.
Emotional Intelligence
Showing calm response to any anger or stressful situations is emotional management. Emotional intelligence teaches children the mechanism of self-regulations of emotions. And also understanding others’ emotions to act according to that. It helps modeling stress free and calmness in behavior while dealing difficult situations. Emotional regulations help children to navigate the setbacks more effectively and also incorporate empathy in their behavior.
Growth Mindset And Optimism
Let a child fall, because when you don’t fall, you can’t learn to rise up again. So allow children to face failures and this will help them to bounce back. Thus to rise up again, a child must have growth mindset. There should be hope to see the future in a positive way. Optimism leads to finding new ways to achieve your goals despite of all the hurdles in the way.
Coping Skills & Problem Solving
Coping skills of children refers to the process of dealing with problems. Their style of approach for problem solving. And how to be adaptive to the change. Coping skills include the way children deal with emotional ups and down, their behavior with others and the cognitive skills. These skills if balanced well, helps children to be resilient. It helps children to understand whatever be the change, they have to be flexible and adapt the change.
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Self-Efficacy And Autonomy
Self-efficacy helps children to have belief in their ability to overcome the adversities of life. Children who are encouraged to take decisions and are motivated to solve problems develop self-efficacy. While autonomy is allowing children to make choices and work independently that develops a sense of self confidence. They are highly motivated and persistent to face the challenges while remaining calm.
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Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg developed a framework that highlighted the key features that help children to bounce back in life. And this framework popularly known as The 7C’s Of Resilience was published by the American Academy Of pediatrics.
The 7 C’s Of Resilience are :-
- Competence : The ability to handle a difficult situation.
- Confidence : Belief in one’s own potential and capabilities.
- Coping : Adapting healthy strategies to face the challenges.
- Control : Believe in one’s own decisions. Knowing that you have control over your life. Your decisions will influence outcomes.
- Character : Defines the strong set of moral values and sense of empathy for others.
- Connection : Feeling of being secured and cared by parents, teachers, friends and other caring people of community.
- Contribution : Understanding the importance of one’s actions that brings positive outcome for the society.
Step-by-Step Guide For Building Resilience In Children
Now as we know the child resilience framework is based on 5 key components. In this section, we will explore the detailed practical strategies for each key. To build resilience in children we ourselves need to model resilience for our children. So to help you here is the guide to child resilience building strategies.
Family Routines
Family routines plays a vital role in molding a child’s habits and character. The way a family manages daily challenges and time have a huge impact on a child’s life. Routines teach children to stick with positive habits and support each other. They do so during all the thick and thin moments of life. This helps to build a character with best set of moral values. Routines help children to manage their emotions, as they know the flow of the day. This helps to build their emotional resilience.
Structured and consistent routine for sleeping, eating, and performing all daily tasks on time promotes good physical and mental health. These are key features of building resilience in children. The most important thing that a child experiences in family is the warmth and care and understanding each other’s emotions. That makes a child feel secured and confident.
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Open Communication
A child with open communication with parents and teachers gains freedom. They can express their thoughts. They can share their ideas openly. That sparks their problem solving skills. This helps them to navigate through the challenges more swiftly. Open communication gives a child safe space to discuss about their problems and fears that reduces their stress and anxiety. This boosts their inner strength to explore new ways to face the challenges.
When a child have trust on parents and teachers, they are emotionally strong. And they have the assurance to get support if required during hard times. This makes them resilient and not fear to take challenges in life. Communicating with children provides them with the opportunity to learn from their mistakes. This enhances their abilities to improve.
Age Specific Coping Exercises
We already know that coping is a crucial element. It forms the foundation of resilience in children. When a child is taught to handle the challenges with positivism from a young age, they develop a strong mindset. They also have a positive outlook towards life. As children of different age groups have different grabbing capacity, so practice age specific healthy coping exercises.
Coping Exercises To Build Resilience For Preschoolers
- Encourage child to play problem solving games
- Maintaining a consistent routine that boosts their adaptability.
- Consistency for basic daily self care habits like enough rest, proper diet and play time.
Coping Exercises To Build Resilience in School Going Children
- Teaching children to split their tasks into small, achievable goals. Motivate them to reach each small goal that will increase their confidence.
- Practicing gratitude every day. This will help children to stay optimistic in life. And will always find the positive side of any situation.
- Encourage children to have some creative hobbies that will help them to manage their emotions during difficult times.
- Teaching children the importance of building strong relationships with parents, peers and the in community.
Coping Exercises To Build Resilience In Teenagers
- Educate then about the importance of mindfulness in life. This will help teenagers to focus on the current moment, navigating all the negative emotions.
- Help them to be comfortable with parents and teachers. So that they can trust them to share any difficult situations or emotional outbursts without being judged.
- Encourage them to join in voluntary activities that will develop a sense of caring and helping attitude in them.
- Guide them to understand the goal of their life. This will make them motivated and hopeful towards life.
Modeling Resilience As An Adult
Modeling Resilience as an adult is one of the key element in building child resilience framework. Children are very good in absorbing the things that happen around them. So when kids see their parents dealing with the challenges positively, they understand this is the way to face the adversities of life. They learn how to bounce back and keep moving ahead. The key to be resilient is keep moving ahead in life with hope and optimism.
When parents sees the challenges as opportunities to learn and grow, kids develop these habits too. They learn to regulate their emotions and reframe the challenges by learning the mistakes and dwelling them positively.
Real Life Scenarios of Building Child Resilience Framework
Resilience is our inner force that helps us to move forward and makes growth possible. During the times of failure, resilience guides us to find the way through the challenges. There are many real life scenarios that help children to navigate through the adversities with inner strength and confidence.
Scenario : Many times children have bad day at school and come home with sad face. During this time, a parent sits beside them, make them feel comfortable. Spend time with children and have a good conversation. Listen to their feelings and problems.
Advantage : This makes children feel secure and reassured. They know they have unconditional love around them. No matter how bad it is, they can make it good with love and support.
Scenario : Parents sharing their experiences of struggles and journey of achieving their goal with children. Discussing their daily experiences while dealing with problems and the way they solved the problems.
Advantage : This models resilience to children. They learn to face challenges by observing their parents actions.
Scenario : A child comes back with heavy heart after being eliminated from final round of a competition in school. His parent gave him a hug and make him understand that he had done well to reach here. And also guide him to learn from his failures, to motivate him to move ahead with new energy and experiences.
Advantage : A child have growth mindset in this scenario. They understand that its okay to fail and give a fresh start with more experiences. They learn to bounce back and learn from mistakes.
Conclusion
Life is tough and everyone must be prepared to face the hardships of life. And for this, parents should model resilience for children. Each child is different and so a parent knows the best ways to use the resources of building resilience in children according to their own pace. Each little steps to teach your child to bounce back will make their foundation strong.
Never forget you can’t shield your child forever. So get them ready to have their own shield in life to face the challenges. Disappointments and failures are inevitable, therefore let your child learn to deal with positivity and be hopeful. The above framework in this post will surely help to build a resilient child with proper family support and guidance.
The journey of guiding your child to bounce back will be different from other child. The approach that works for a child may not work for your child. So don’t be impatient, as you are the role model for your child. Always be patient and you are the best guide for your child.
If you or your child feel overwhelming, ask for help, consider exploring different ways to strengthen resilience. Perseverance and Consistency are the keys to develop resilience in children.
