Our emotional health is constantly challenged by the situations we face. You can help your child be better prepared to cope with challenges in the future by helping them build resilience.
What is ‘resilience’ and why is it important?
Resilience is having the capacity to recover from difficulties or being able to ‘bounce back’ from setbacks. Resilience develops when children experience challenges, and learn to deal with them positively with determination and effort.
How can you support your child’s resilience?
Having good health, friendships, talents and interests, being able to understand and manage their emotions, as well as having access to education and feeling safe are all important.
- Encourage them to reframe their thoughts in a more positive way – they can do it.
- Talk about the importance of keeping themselves well, including eating well and keeping active.
- Help your child or young person develop and maintain friendships.
- Support their talents and interests.
- Help them to understand and manage their emotions including how to manage stressful events like tests in primary school or exams in secondary school.
- Above all, provide them with love and a feeling of safety.
Useful resources
- Kent Resilience Hub has tips to help your child become more resilient including some short videos with tips for parents and carers about how to support their child to be resilient, and how to be resilient parents themselves.
- Young Minds has a free helpline and webchat service available to parents as well as tips about how to talk with your child about their mental health.
- Families in Kent and Medway can access free online ‘Understanding your child’ courses. These are here to you develop as a parent as your family grows. These free online courses are available in 15-20-minute chunks, perfect for busy parents and carers. Use the access code Invicta to register for your free account.