Susanne Tanski, MD, MPH, offers advice on how to strengthen resilience in kids.
What is resilience?
- Resilience is the ability to cope with adverse experiences, big or small.
- Children face daily stressors and need to build resilience to cope with them.
- Personal attributes like adaptability, perseverance, and self-reliance contribute to resilience.
- These attributes can all be strengthened.
How can parents help build resilience in their kids?
- Building resilience starts with a loving and strong foundation from parents.
- Model resilience and show empathy when children face challenges.
- Help children "right-size" problems and not overreact to small issues.
- Avoid taking over problem-solving and instead support children in finding their own solutions.
- Emphasize your child's success in overcoming challenges to reinforce resilience.
Resources
Websites
- Anxiety Resource Center (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry)
- Anxiety (Child Life Institute)
- Coping Cat Parents
- Anxiety and Being Kind to Yourself: For Parents (Child Life Institute)
Books
- Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents: 7 ways to stop the worry cycle and raise courageous and independent children, by Lynn Lyons and Reid Wilson
- Last Child in the Woods, by Richard Louv
- Parenting from the Inside Out, by Daniel J. Siegel
- Raising an Adult, by Julie Lythcott-Haimes
- The Gift of Failure, by Jessica Lahey
