Wellbeing Hub

Building Resilience

Children who are resilient respond to setbacks and challenges with a positive outlook and can adapt and solve problems. They become more confident in themselves and feel prepared to take on future challenges. Resilient children understand that uncomfortable feelings don’t last forever, and these emotions usually go away. These skills lead to these children having better physical and mental health in the long term.

So how can we help build resilience in our children and young people?

Having strong, safe and secure relationships with your child can support them to respond positively to setbacks and explore their world confidently. Positive and safe relationships with grandparents, aunties, uncles, educators and friends play an important part in giving your child a sense of belonging and the message that they are valued.

Supporting your child but not trying to fix or solve their every problem or disappointment- talk to them about how they are feeling instead.

Avoid predicting or preventing all your child’s problems. Overcoming small challenges builds resilience for bigger problems.

Help your child to identify their emotions and manage these feelings in a safe way. Encourage your child to have a go when they are unsure. Praise your child for trying, no matter the outcome.

Build your child’s self-compassion by modelling kindness to self, normalising making mistakes and how to learn from them.

Make it a habit to recognise and acknowledge when things are going well- this could be as simple as everyone sharing one thing that went well that day at the dinner table. 

Talk about problems or disappointments with your child, help them brainstorm how they could improve the problem if it happens again.

Developing resilience takes time so try to be patient and supportive while your child works out how to respond to challenges or problems. 

Source: 

Further Information:

BeYou: Building Resilience in Children