Tips and Activities to Help Build Resilience in Kids

When we think of resilient people, we tend to think of people who are unaffected by challenges and adversity in life. They face setbacks with a smile and appear comfortable with obstacles. But, this isn’t resilience. Resilience is the ability to bounce back after facing challenges, setbacks, and obstacles. For children, this can include experiences such as starting a new school, moving house, or experiencing bullying amongst other things. 

Children will build resilience in time through the experiences they face and with support from family. This helps them develop confidence and feel more adept at facing challenges when they arise.

Building resilience as a child also strengthens their problem-solving skills. This is because they have the confidence to try again if things don’t go right the first time. Although children may still feel hurt, upset, sad, disappointed, or anxious about a situation, they can experience these feelings and still bounce back within a shorter period. 

If you’re looking for ways to help build resilience in your child, these tips may be useful: 

• Avoid trying to solve problems for them or prevent things from happening. Give your child the space to attempt things themselves and support them from afar. 
• Praise your child’s efforts at having a go and encourage them to try again. 
• Help them to identify big emotions and let them know it’s ok to feel them. 
• Always acknowledge when things are going well and share positive moments together. 
• Keep an eye out for positive role models your child can look up to.

And so will these three activities:

Build Resilience Through Mindfulness

One way to build emotional resilience is through mindfulness. Mindfulness strengthens the logical and emotional areas of your child’s brain. This increases awareness and focuses attention on the present moment, which allows them to experience emotions without judgment and regulate how they respond to challenges. 

Read Books About Resilience

Books are a great way to learn about resilience. Often, characters will face adversity and overcome it to get to the end of the story. Find some stories your child loves that encourage resilience and read to them each night. You can also try finding resilient stories from famous people that inspire them. Make a special trip to the library or the bookshop each time your child is interested in something new to keep the reading spark alive.

The Hard Thing Rule

This game is inspired by Angela Lee Duckworth who teaches grit to her daughters using the ‘Hard Thing Rule’.

Each family member chooses something hard to learn or pursue. It can be things like learning to play an instrument, play a sport, or an activity. The rules are simple. Each person picks their own hard thing to learn, and everyone must finish what they start. This allows everyone in the family to hold others accountable and provides an opportunity for you to set an example for your child. 

We hope these tips and activities have been useful to you and your family. For more like this, make sure to follow @mindfulandcokids on Instagram and visit mindfulandcokids.com.