What do I need to know about resilience?

What is Resilience?

Resilience is defined as ‘the capacity to bounce back from difficult situations, to face adversity with strength and the ability to learn from your mistakes’.

Why teach Resilience?

Teaching resilience encourages children to try new things, to step outside of their comfort zone and to not be discouraged from making mistakes.

Learning these skills gives children the tools to navigate through life to become the very best they can be. They help with:

• Enhanced future job prospects. World Economic Forum ‘Future of Jobs Report’ consistently cites life skills as the most critical skills for the workplace.
• Increased academic attainment. Numerous scientific papers identify the correlation between happiness and academic attainment
• Improved mental health, particularly during a global pandemic

Do children need to learn Resilience?

Yes. It is such an important and useful skill for children to learn and to fully grasp.

Children need to recognise such a skill before they can thoroughly implement it into their everyday lives. Through learning resilience children learn to adapt, embrace new experiences, and encourages them to believe that anything can be achieved when they put their mind to it.

How do you explain Resilience?

It is the ability to bounce back from difficult situations.

It is about giving things a go, trying your best at something (practice, practice, practice!), to keep going even when things get tough and believing anything is possible if you keep trying.

How do you implement the teaching of Resilience?

Resilience is implemented through practice.

Practice thought awareness, practice your growth mindset, do not fear failure but accept and learn from failure, maintain perspective, develop self-confidence, create connections and relationships, and try to see setbacks as opportunities to learn. By putting these into practice, you are able to become more resilient.

Why is resilience important in children?

Resilience will enable a child to develop mechanisms to protect themselves against experiences which could potentially be overwhelming.

It's important for children to understand the concept of resilience and to have the tools to implement it into their everyday lives. Resilient children are more likely to take healthy risks as they do not fear failure, which is crucial for their personal development. It can discourage perfectionism, build self-confidence, develop emotional intelligence and support a positive mindset. Navigating through life can be difficult, however, with resilience children have a better chance in overcoming difficulties and achieving their goals.

What does it mean to be a resilient child?

A resilient child is someone with the mindset of seeing setbacks as opportunities to learn.

They believe that practice allows you to reach your potential, that challenges are a place for learning, and having the confidence and self-belief to persist with any task will help you in achieving your goals. A resilient child is a risk taker who is prepared for failure and does not see these as downfalls but as learning opportunities.

What skills do you need to be resilient?

There are many skills you need to be resilient and they are skills which you can learn and develop.

Some of these skills are; being able to manage big feelings, being able to communicate, to problem-solve, being able to look at the bigger picture by focusing on long term gains, by having a growth mindset and having the ability to face adversity.

What helps to develop resilience?

To help develop resilience you need to have a 'can do ' attitude.

Try believing in your own capabilities, work on your communication skills, trust in the process and see that everything is an opportunity to learn. Only through facing adversity and challenges can you become resilient. Also, the best way for a child to develop their resilience is by having a supportive parent or caregiver who understands resilience and what it is to be resilient. By implementing, discussing and practicing being resilient, a child will have a more of a chance to fully develop and use resilience throughout their lives.

What does our Resilience Course teach?

This Course focuses on how to face challenges, handle mistakes, deal with adversity and thrive in an ever-changing world.

We run offline courses both in the UK and Internationally, plus online courses and sessions for children aged 8-11. For children aged 5-7, we offer an introductory course called Brilliant Me and My Mind.

How do I explain the Course to my child?

It is a fun filled, action packed, activity based course where you will meet new friends.

You will learn what resilience means and how you can use it in your everyday life. You will be given tools which will help you work towards becoming the very best version of you! Ask your child, ‘do you ever have negative or unhelpful thoughts?’ You will find out how to deal with these and how to listen to much more empowering thoughts instead.