Language and Literacy Corner: The Importance of Resilience

2020 was a trying and challenging year with an increase in anxiety and depression in children. Emotional issues can impact language by slowing growth, reducing attention to language input, or in some cases, resulting in regression. Often people speaking in public forums have been observed to state, “children are resilient,” but resiliency does not develop naturally.

What is resilience? It is the ability to cope with a crisis and bounce back. Resilient people have protective factors that help them succeed and carry on, even when times are tough. These can be found in the environment (caring community, access to healthcare, needed resources, etc.), family, and within the child.

A video on resilience from Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child can be found here

Social and emotional health is an important protective factor to help handle life. Three of the key factors related to social emotional development are:

· Attachments/Relationships (healthy relationships that begin in infancy);

· Self-Regulation (ability to show a range of feelings and control behavior in safe and healthy ways); and

· Initiative (independently use thoughts and actions to meet needs).

 How to support resilience:

· Talk/sign to your child and respond to their communication.

· Have a routine.

· Accept a range of feelings and talk about expressing those feelings.

· Accept mistakes as learning opportunities.

· Show joy in your child’s accomplishments and attempts.

· Play games together.

· Have set aside family time.

· Let your child help at home or plan activities.

The best summary is this quote from Dr. Sam Goldstein. “There are two ways to create a masterpiece. You can start with a lump of clay or you can start with a hunk of marble. Traditionally, in helping children gain knowledge, we’ve taken the marble approach. We’ve taken our chisels and chipped away and chipped away at children until we have a pile of rubble. In many cases, they’re very unhappy and not much better for our efforts. I suggest you shift your mindset to a way that is more in concert with the concept of resilience. You can start with a lump of clay. You can mold it and shape it and if it doesn’t seem to be moving in the right direction, you can reshape it. It’s a much more flexible and insightful approach. It’s not that children are lumps of clay or pieces of marble but what is your mindset. When you work with a child, is it your mindset to chip away at them and fix what’s wrong with them? Or is it your mindset to help shape, create, develop all that child can be regardless of what challenges this child brings to the world?”

Boosting Resilience and Stress Hardiness as Part of Language Intervention, by Sam      Goldstein, PhD, ABPdN - part of the "Adolescent Language Beyond the Classroom" ASHA e-workshop