Building Resilience
Children with disabilities need resilience to bounce back from setbacks and face challenges with strength and determination. Building resilience allows your child to become more capable of navigating obstacles like physical limitations, social barriers, or academic difficulties. This helps them maintain a positive outlook, persevere through tough times, and adapt to changes.As a caregiver, you play a crucial role in supporting your child to build resilience and navigate challenges effectively. Use these practical strategies to nurture resilience and empower your child to thrive despite challenges they may face.
- Open Communication— Allowing kids to open up about their feelings and challenges fosters trust. Talk openly with your child about their difficulties, so they feel understood and supported.
- Set Realistic Goals — When kids set realistic goals tailored to their abilities, they feel accomplished. Celebrate their successes as this will boost their confidence and self-esteem.
- Develop Coping Skills— Parents can teach and model healthy coping skills like deep breathing, and mindfulness techniques, or engage in creative outlets like art or music. This will help your child manage stress and emotions positively.
- Advocate Support— It’s also important for parents to advocate for appropriate support and accommodations. Speak up for your child’s needs in school and community settings to ensure they get the right support and accommodations to thrive.
- Encourage Social Connections— Promoting friendships and social connections will give your child a sense of belonging and provide important support.
- Seek Professional Help When Needed— Seeking professional help from a therapist or counselor can provide additional resources for individualized guidance and help reinforce resilience skills with your child.
Rachel Glad, whose child has a disability, learned firsthand how to cope with these challenges by being a resilient mother. She shares that, “Toughness and resiliency come from being able to withstand or recover from difficulties quickly. Resilience is developed amid struggle.
As a parent, you see the struggles of your children and you are given a front-row seat to resilience when you are the parent of a child with a disability. Nathan our 17-year-old son has severely brittle bones. Fracture after fracture, he suffers setbacks and pain. His father and I would help him through the pain and setbacks he faced as a child. Our goal is to encourage him to keep trying and to keep going. We taught him to use his breath to calm his body. We also nurtured a mindset that allowed Nathan to find his place in the world. With his limitations, we explore all that he can do. Every victory, no matter how small, is celebrated.
Nathan Glad just published a book Best Day Ever with New York Times Best Selling author, Richard Paul Evans. In his book, he explains how and why he chooses to be happy. His happy outlook is something he was born with. His resilience is a talent he has built over his lifetime. I as his mom have been here cheering him on and loving him every step he takes. Life is really hard. Lifelong disabilities are hard. Never giving up and continuing to see the victories will build resilience, and your struggles will become your strengths.”
Additional Resources on Resiliency:
- Activities on Growth Mindset: Understood.org
- Top 30 children’s books on resilience: Big Life Journal
- Book Reflection Questions to Start a Conversation: Strong4LifeParenting Tips for Building Resiliency: American Psychological Assoc.
