Building Resilience in Children

Hello everyone!

Oh my goodness, has 2 months really gone since I last posted on this blog? And oh my goodness...is it really only 4 weeks till the end of the year? As I get older time really does fly faster and faster....

Ah well. I thought I'd finish what I started to write about in my last post here about Michael Carr-Greg's talk on Building Resilience in Children.

Firstly, I believe that resilience is the ability to accept that chaos and unfairness exists and still be positive anyway. So what are the characteristics of resilient children?

5 Characteristics of Resilient Children

A longitudinal study by Emmy Werner of children in highly abusive environments found that the resilient children in those environments had the following characteristics:

1. They each had a charismatic adult in their lives who made them feel safe, valued and listened to.

2. They were all competent socially and emotionally - ie they were good at naming and recognising others' feelings, good at managing their anger and good at resolving conflicts.

3. They each had a sense of meaning, purpose and belonging. They all realised that they are part of something bigger than themselves. For some this was religion. For others it was a deep passion in a sport, a community or a cause.

4. They engaged often in positive self-talk.

5. They all found an island of competence. They found something that they were good at and pre-occupied their days (outside of school or their normal environment).

Michael Carr-Gregg emphasised the need to find opportunities to give children the 5 characteristics mentioned above - surround them adults who care about them and make them feel safe, valued and listened to; teach them positive self-talk; and have them join extra-curricular activities that will pre-occupy them; encourage concrete activities that would give them an awareness of belonging in a world that is larger than themselves and their peers.

My children's donation and letters to Olivia

So where am I going with this and how is all of this relevant to this blog?

As my children grow older and become more immersed into this highly consumerist society of ours, I am becoming more and more aware that they *will* be exposed to harmful messages.

I have talked in this blog before that a "good" consumer is an anxious consumer. Part of an effective advertising campaign is to create a feeling that one needs particular goods or services in order to be "happy". And those campaigns are increasingly being targeted at our children.

Daily, my family and I are bombarded by media and advertising campaigns promoting unhealthy body images, unhealthy sexual behaviours and over consumption of goods.

While I can limit my children's exposure to these harmful messages, I know that there are those in our society that could (and would) judge and bully those who do not embrace these unhealthy practices or who do not fit into these "norms."

I'm starting to realise that building resilience in my children also plays an important part in helping my children become consumption-literate.

Anyway, its late and I hope that this post has been helpful to you. I would love to hear your thoughts on teaching children consumption-literacy!