Resilience

What is it?

Resilience is the ability to bounce back when something goes wrong or doesn’t go our way.  It is not something we are born with it is something that is learnt over time through our relationships with others.   Children who develop a healthy mind-set have better life outcomes.

Why are some of us more resilient than others?

Think of resilience as a seesaw or balance scale, where negative experiences tip the scale toward bad outcomes, and positive experiences tip it toward good outcomes. The fulcrum, the central point of our seesaw is our capacity for resilience. For some of us, the fulcrum is moved towards the negative outcomes due to our life experiences; poverty, lack of housing, ACES therefore making us less resilient. This means we need lots of positive experiences to create more leverage to balance it out. The fulcrum is not stuck in this imbalance towards negative outcomes, over time and with supportive and positive relationships it can move back towards the centre.

Image source – Alberta Family Wellness Brains: Journey to resilience

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

Watch this video to understand further the science of resilience, see how genes and experience interact to produce positive outcomes for children.

How do we develop resilience?

Think of resilience as a seesaw or balance scale, where negative experiences tip the scale toward bad outcomes, and positive experiences tip it toward good outcomes. The fulcrum, the central point of our seesaw is our capacity for resilience. For some of us, the fulcrum is moved towards the negative outcomes due to our life experiences; poverty, lack of housing, ACES therefore making us less resilient. This means we need lots of positive experiences to create more leverage to balance it out. The fulcrum is not stuck in this imbalance towards negative outcomes, over time and with supportive and positive relationships it can move back towards the centre.

Connection

Being in tune

Emotion coaching

Emotionally available adult
Family Support

Contacts

Kate Hubble, Early Years Improvement Officer

Kate Irvine, Early Years Improvement Officer, Early Years Consultant

Beth Osborne, Early Years Consultant

Ali Carrington, Early Years Consultant

Anna Morgan, Early Years Consultant

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