Building
Resiliency: Time for change.
Resilience is the process of adapting well in
the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of
stress — such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems or
workplace and financial stressors. It means, "bouncing back" from
difficult experiences.
Research has shown that resilience is
ordinary, not extraordinary.
Resilience is not a trait that people either
have or do not have. It involves behaviors, thoughts and actions that can be
learned and developed in anyone. (APA)
Want to know more? Check it out…
Time for Change
Change is here and I would like to encourage us all
to embrace what is going to come with an open mind and open heart. As we begin
to recognize those that will be leaving PRIS, please take time to review our
Super Hero bulletin board and our Super Hero Assembly Map as we prepare to
celebrate the new journey that is ahead for some of our PRIS families.
Transitioning
Most people move though a range of transitions from
childhood to adulthood, from school to work, and from home to independent
living. An important transition for children and young people is their movement
through the structured schooling system with its staged approach, and the
associated developmental changes as children and young people grow and mature
involving intellectual, physical, emotional and social adjustments.
What is transitioning?
Transitions occur regularly across a person's
lifetime and most young people will go through four to five major structured transitions
commencing with their move into primary school, then from primary to high
school. Transitioning is the period of adjustment and recalibration as you move
from one stage, or life situation, to another.
What is the impact?
A strong relationship with parents or carers,
combined with strong coping resources and responses are
protective factors that build resiliency in a child or young person, which
assists them as they go through transitions. Coping resources include
psychological and social resources such as the child's or young person's
commitment and willingness to view the change as a positive challenge to meet
and learn from rather than viewing it as a negative. It also includes networks
of family, friends and other supports the child or young person has around them,
which they can tap into throughout the transition.Self-confidence,
self-efficacy, self-regulation, along with parental closeness and monitoring,
adult mentoring and guidance, and connection with community provide children
and young people with the tools to thrive.
Coping responses refers to what actions the child
or young person actually takes such as seeking out their network of friends who
might be going through the same transition, taking time out to relax and
recuperate, or talking to an older sibling who has already experienced a
similar transition. This same set of core protective assets works across
different ethnic and racial groups.
What can you expect?
It is normal for your child to experience some
uncertainty and doubt even when the change is welcomed and anticipated. There
tends to be common responses to transitioning whether a child is moving through
a defined pathway such as through the schooling system, to employment, or
adjusting to a sudden disruption. The stages are:
· Immobilisation - being frozen,
unable to make decisions, or to understand
· Denial or minimisation that
the change is important
· Depression
· Acceptance - realising that
there is no going back
· Testing - trying out new
behaviours so as to cope with what the change brings
· Seeking new meaning by
reflecting on the change
· Internalising the new learning
and displaying new behaviours and identity
The stages are not necessarily experienced in the
order shown here nor do people go through all of them at the same rate. Depending
on their level of resilience they will sometimes swing back and forth between
stages until they ascribe new meaning to their changed situation and take on
new behaviours. As a parent, looking out for signs of the various stages of
transition will help you to understand how your child or young person
experiences change in their life and you can then adjust your responses to
assist them.
Things you can do
Maintaining the simple routines of family life is
crucial especially for younger children moving into primary school. As well,
shared family activities increase a child or young person's capacity to make
successful transitions from childhood to adolescence even though there is often
reduced available time as their lives outside of the home become busier. By
focusing on the less demanding more routine family activities this sharing can
still be achieved between parents and young people.
Building success in your young person's life and
challenging their negative thinking at every opportunity is one of the best
ways to increase their self-belief and ultimately to successfully undertake
transitions.
See more at: http://www.kidshelp.com.au/grownups/news-research/hot-topics/transitioning.php#sthash.yBESLeE8.dpuf
What is under the Super Hero Mask? Understanding your child’s personality.
It was a pleasure hosting the Health Matters
workshop “What is under the Super Hero Mask? Understanding your child’s
personality”. Parents that were in attendance, worked to understand the
difference between temperament and personality and how understanding our own
personality will help guide us in shaping a healthy parenting style.
We discussed the 9 different temperament
styles and completed activities to help understand further the strengths and
growth areas of each. For the most part, temperament is an innate quality of
the child, one with which he/she is born. Personality however embraces the
external environment and how he/she perceives this information. Personality is
shaped throughout developmental years and continues to change as we get older.
The importance in understanding your child’s
temperament and personality is that it can help you to do the best job in
teaching and parenting him/her. If you recognize his/her dominant style, you
can encourage his/her character strengths. You can embrace the unique talents
and potential in the early years. That allows you to work with and guide him/her
in a way that best suits your child’s personality.
Want to know
more? Check it out…
- healthychildren.org
- http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/childdevelopment/temperament_and_your_child
- http://www.parents.com/
- raisingchildren.net.au
What is under the Super Hero Mask? Understanding your child’s personality.
Your child's temperament has a lot to do with
the pleasures and problems you will have raising him. It has a lot to do with
how you feel about yourself as a parent. How well you understand your child's
temperament, and adjust your parenting to fit it, has a lot to do with his/her long-term
wellbeing.
Time for Change
One of our biggest concern is knowing that we as adults may embrace the “change” but what about our children? Also, how much change is too much change?
Ultimately, we identified strategies that worked for us and our children and learned about resources that are free and easy to access online.
Thank you to all that joined us and I look forward to working with you again SY 15-16 when we tackle:
1) Teenager Development
2) Parent/Child personalities (identifying your child's personality and the interaction between parent/child personalities)
3) Substance Abuse & Healthy attitudes
4) Healthy Self-Image: Boosting your child's self-image (without creating arrogance)
5) Sex Ed and Body awareness and image
Let's Be Friends. Teaching Social and Emotional Skills for a Lifetime.
The feedback from parents in attendance suggests as a
community we are eager to learn more to help our children specifically how to
manage negative pressures, such as bullying as well as how to empower our
children to be proud and confident while practicing humility. Let’s continue to have great conversations as
to how we can set-up our students/children for success.
Want
to know more? Check it out...
- SEL-Social Emotional Toolkit-in Spanish as well.
- CASEL-Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning
Confident vs Unconfident
·
Discuss with
your child, in a non-defensive and non-threatening way, how others feel about
bragging and why it’s not working for him.
Bullying is
unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real
or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to
be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and
who bully others may have serious, lasting problems.
In
order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be aggressive and
include:
An
Imbalance of Power: Kids who bully use their power—such as physical
strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity—to control or harm
others. Power imbalances can change over time and in different situations, even
if they involve the same people.
There
are many roles that kids can play. Kids can bully others, they can
be bullied, or they may witness bullying. When kids are involved
in bullying, they often play more than one role. Sometimes kids may both
be bullied and bully others or they may witness other kids
being bullied. It is important to understand the multiple roles kids play
in order to effectively prevent and respond to bullying.
Importance
of Not Labeling Kids
When
referring to a bullying situation, it is easy to call the kids
who bully others "bullies" and those who are targeted
"victims," but this may have unintended consequences. When children
are labeled as "bullies" or "victims" it may:
Send
the message that the child's behavior cannot change
Instead
of calling a child a "bully," refer to them as "the child
who bullied"
The
roles kids play in bullying are not limited to those
who bully others and those who are bullied. Some researchers
talk about the "circle of bullying" to define both those
directly involved in bullyingand those who actively or passively assist
the behavior or defend against it
Let's Be Friends. Teaching Social and Emotional Skills for a Lifetime.
How do we know if our children have the right skills to make a positive friend? What skills do they really need? If our children don't have these skills...can they still be successful?
Want to know more? Check it out...
Dealing with Disappointment: Getting Gritty with your Child/ren.
When does encouragement cause resistance? How do we allow our children to embrace "not yet"? Positive psychology doesn't have all the answers but it is a good start. Start with this video from Champion Newsletter.
Want to know more? Check it out...
Friendships
I read an interesting article about befriending “Failure”. There is a lot of buzz about Grit and Perseverance; encouraging students to take positive risks and not be successful the first time. One question the article asks is if we can “Rebrand Failure”? Failure seems to have such a negative connotation, however can we become friends with failure? Failure does not come on its own, it brings an entire gang that we need to begin liking…Perseverance, Determination, Reflection, Evaluation, Excellence but not Perfection…Can our child/ren/students appreciate how failing can help them learn?Want to know more? Check it out...
Parents and friends can equal health benefits for children and teens.
Want to know more? Check it out...
Goal Setting
A Wall Street Journal article said, “A student’s ability to set and achieve realistic goals is linked to higher grades, lower college-dropout rates and greater well-being in adulthood.” As parents, we have goals for our children, and recognize that our children also have goals for themselves. How can we help them through the process of setting and achieving their goals?
Want to know more? Check it out...
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