Wellbeing & Learning Diversity

Wellbeing 

Resilience 

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Resilience

Resilience is the ability to ‘bounce back’ after challenges and tough times.

For children, challenges and tough times include experiences like starting at a new school, moving house, or welcoming a sibling into the family. 

Children build resilience over time through experience. You can help your child learn skills and develop resilience by having a warm, supportive relationship with them.

Why it is important

Children who are resilient can recover from setbacks and get back to living their lives more quickly. And when children overcome setbacks and problems, it builds their confidence and helps them feel more capable the next time a problem comes up.

Resilient children are often good at solving problems and learning new skills. This is because they’re more willing to try again even if things don’t go the way they want the first time.

What families can be doing at home to help build their child’s resilience

• Support your child but try not to solve every minor problem or disappointment. For example, if your child didn’t get what they want for their birthday, you could talk about how they feel instead of trying to fix the problem.
• Avoid predicting and preventing problems for your child. This might mean not replacing a broken toy. Overcoming small challenges builds your child’s resilience for bigger setbacks.
• Help your child to identify and manage strong emotions. For example, your child might be worried about a family member who’s sick. You could say, ‘I can see you’re really worried about Grandpa. It’s OK to be worried. But remember we’re doing everything we can to help him get better’.
• Encourage your child to have another go when things don’t work out the first time they try something. Praise your child for trying, no matter the result. You could say ‘I’m proud of you for finishing the race’ or ‘Well done for giving it another go’.