Lesson 8: Resiliency

Attention

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to

  • Define resiliency
  • Explain how resiliency can decrease the impact of ACE's
  • Explore resiliency through his or her own lens
  • Plan how to promote resiliency as an early childhood educator

Teaching

After that heavy lesson on Adverse Childhood Experiences, you may be feeling a bit defeated. This lesson should feel a little more upbeat as we talk about all of the ways in which you can counteract ACE’s with something called resiliency factors.

Resiliency is a term used that describes one's capacity to adapt or cope to adverse experiences. Some children, despite the alarming amount of ACE's the face, also have a high resilience factor and are able to overcome the odds that we see in the data. These resilience Key Concepts are best described by The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. Watch the video in addition to reading the page.

As you may have read or heard, there are a common set of factors that influence positive outcomes despite adversity. Those factors include:

  1. Encouraging parent child relationships
  2. Building self-value and control within children and families
  3. Providing opportunities to strengthen adaptive and self-regulatory skills
  4. Boosting sources of faith, hope and cultural traditions.

All of these factors are within the capabilities of the early childhood educator's scope. Some of these things we are already doing without even thinking about it!

For example:

Let's pretend that yesterday morning you greeted a family at the door and they had a rough morning. You have no idea but the mother and father had an argument and Mom threw her coffee mug (full of coffee) at the dad. After the broke his nose on impact, it landed on the floor, smashing to pieces. The four year old child and his mother both looked a little off this morning. They almost look sad and neither of them is smiling. You add some extra warmth to your smile and say, "Good Morning Sally and little Joe. I am so happy you are here today." Joe, I like the way you are giving mom a nice big hug this morning. Your mom sure loves you doesn't she?"

Sally looks at her son and a smile breaks through. You just promoted resiliency factor number one, parent child relationships. It is so simple and has such a large impact. You also build resiliency every time you tell a child, "I really appreciate your help today setting the table!" or "I knew you could do it! Building that tower was hard work but you stuck with it!" Just those few short phrases give children a sense of self value and control – Factor number two! Providing opportunities to strengthen adaptive and self-regulatory skills can be a little more difficult because most of the time it involves strong emotions.

For example:

Little Betty took a toy from little Joey. Joey really wants to hit the other child. You see his eyebrows scrunch together and his fists form into a ball. You intervene just as the Joey is about to hit and say to him, "Hey Joey, you look really upset that Betty took your toy. Tell her, "I don't like it when you take my toy!"

Just like that, you have given Joey self-regulatory skills that he can use – his words. You may see some sites set up areas in the environment like the "safe space" which promotes self-regulatory and adaptive skills by allowing children a space to feel safe while they sort through their emotions. The last factor is something that you can do by respecting the family's beliefs and values. This is an area you can be really proactive in by setting up the environment to encompass the family's cultural traditions. Of course there are many other ways to promote resilience in young children. When it comes down to it, building a positive relationship and partnership with the child and family will be the most important thing you do. Once you have built the trusting partnership you are then able to support the family and use other techniques that are unique to them. Again, for more information follow this link to the The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University RESILIENCE. NAEYC has also provided a wonderful, short article called Promoting Resilience in Young Children.

Assessment

Lesson 8 Assignment

In the previous lesson you calculated your ACE’s Score. For part of this assignment I want you to go to the same webpage and calculate your Resiliency Score. The resiliency score is not used for research, but for parenting education. Either way, it is always nice to identify the reasons why you are who you are and what it is that impacts the children that are facing ACE’s. To submit, write a one page summary on the following information:

1. What is your understanding of resiliency and how it can decrease adverse childhood experiences?
2. How has your own resiliency score helped you to understand how resiliency is important?
3. How does this knowledge impact your work with children and families in early childhood education?
4. What are three strategies you can use right now to promote resiliency? (This could be your own resiliency or resiliency in others if you are NOT currently working with young children and families).