Head of Early Learning, Ms Sarah Bethune provides expert advice on how to build resilience in young children, in her article below:

All children will experience obstacles and challenges as part of their everyday lives from time to time. Resilience is the ability to bounce back when these challenges arise, or setbacks occur.  

It is important that children begin to develop resilience from a young age as it builds their confidence and helps them to feel more prepared the next time, they encounter a challenge. Young children build resilience over time and with experience.  

“Building resilience helps children not only to deal with current difficulties that are part of everyday life, but also develop the basic skills and habits that will help them deal with challenges later in life, during adolescence and adulthood.” Beyond Blue 

When things do not go well, children can feel anxious, sad, disappointed, afraid, or frustrated. Resilience helps them to understand that these uncomfortable emotions do not last forever and that they can work through them. 

Relationships are integral to building resilience. Strong, positive relationships with family and educators help children to feel safe, secure, and loved. This sense of security gives the child confidence to explore their world and recover from any setbacks that they may experience. 

Children learn resilience through experience. Each time they overcome a problem, it builds their confidence and skills to manage the next challenge. Resilient children are often more willing to try, even if things do not go the way they had hoped. They have the confidence and problem-solving skills to work their way through a range of different situations. 

Here are some ways that you can build your child’s resilience: 

Encourage Independence: Give your child time and space to solve problems for themselves. Avoid predicting and preventing problems for your child as you will be denying them the opportunity to learn and grow. Ask questions and bounce the problem back to the child, then brainstorm solutions together. Children will demonstrate how competent and capable they can be when given the opportunity.  

Identify, Acknowledge and Manage Emotions: Help your child to identify and manage their emotions. Talk to them about how they are feeling and acknowledge those feelings, for example “It is okay to be feeling sad because we cannot visit Grandma at the moment. What could you do to tell Grandma how much you miss her?” 

Promote a ‘Can Do’ Attitude: Encourage your child to have a go or try again when they think they cannot do something or when things do not work out the first time. We need to promote the importance of trying or “having a go” and acknowledge the child’s efforts.  

Embrace Mistakes: It is important that children understand that it is okay to make mistakes and that this is how we learn and grow. This should be modelled and promoted with young children. Our aim is to promote a growth mindset. 

Promote Healthy Risk Taking: It is important for young children to experience a healthy level of risk. They need to experience what it feels like to step outside of their comfort zone. This might include trying an activity or skill that they have not previously tried, interacting with new people, or trying out new play equipment at the playground. 

Promote Optimism: Optimism and resiliency go hand in hand. Optimism can be nurtured in young children. Your conversations and questions can help support the child to see the positives in situations rather than them becoming fixated on the negative. 

Encourage Problem Solving Skills: If your child talks to you about an issue that has occurred during their day, rather than giving them solutions, ask them what they could do or who they could talk to about this problem if they encounter the same thing again. By doing this, you are providing the child with strategies and a plan for how to handle a similar situation. 

Role Model Resilience: Role model how you respond to challenges. When your child sees you adapt because something does not go to plan, or let frustration go, or display a positive attitude in a challenging situation, they learn that they can do the same. 

These are some of the strategies that educators use in our Early Learning Programs to support the development of resilience in children. By working together, families and educators can best support the building of resilience in our children and ensure they are well-prepared for the future challenges they will face in their everyday lives. 

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