Long before any of us became parents, we all had some idea of what to expect. The less romantic might have anticipated their children’s first food fight, impromptu Crayola murals, or hot tears from having skinned their knees. Balanced of course by the cosiest snuggles, the cutest photographs, and those immaculate moments when our children might randomly proclaim, “I love you so much, mummy”.
What you might not have foreseen, is teaching your children to deal with the uncertainty of life. Just as there will be moments of pure bliss, there will also be challenging times that push their limits or even break their hearts. To accept and overcome these tremendous stresses, our children need to be Resilient - the ability to bounce back from any challenges.
Resilience can be taught, nurtured and honed. And this is especially easy if parents are aware of AptaGro™’s 5 Pillars of Resilience. This neatly packaged roadmap from AptaGro™ helps mums and dads introduce essential values to their children, like Perseverance - that is the tenacity to achieve something as a result of persistence (never give up).
Or Daringness, the bravery, and courage to embrace new experiences. And when faced with challenges, children should be ready to employ Resourcefulness, the aptitude to find quick and clever solutions so they may thrive under any conditions.
Adaptability comes next, which is the ability to respond suitably and swiftly when the environment changes suddenly. And to tie all these pillars together, AptaGro™ has identified that children must be Self-Reliant. This is making their own decisions while yet being connected to family and friends.
In five easy steps, we’ll show you how to prep your child to face the world’s challenges!
5 Pillars of Resilience: 5 Steps For Building Resilience In Children
Step 1: Notice Your Child’s Natural Stress Response And Face Them Together
What sets them off? What are your children’s trigger indicators? Do they fight or flee when facing difficult situations? With your child, gently discuss their biggest challenges.
Academically, it could be solving math problems, writing a long essay, or simply the nerves of presenting their work in front of the class. You’ll know it’s their biggest challenge because children will express doubt and frustration as they aren’t sure if they can accomplish the task.
Then share with them that adults face challenges too. Did you know Dr. Seuss was rejected many times before anyone agreed to publish his children’s stories? Children can benefit from hearing that these feelings are common in all people, young and old.
This is the ideal time to teach Perseverance. Encourage your child to face each stress trigger or problematic situation because Perseverance is the drive that helps them get past the hard stuff to get what they want. Good grades, the praise of their teachers, the admiration of friends, these are all goals that motivate children. Without Perseverance, these goals are unattainable.
Step 2: Inspire Your Child To Say Yes To New Experiences
The human brain is like a muscle. It needs to exercise and grow by learning new things. Yet to learn, one must first have the Daringness to say ‘Yes’ to new experiences.
With young children, fear is a common response to new challenges and experiences. These situations make children feel uncertain, vulnerable, powerless, and anxious. They strip away a child’s sense of security and control.
To encourage Daringness, parents must first be supportive of effort and progress, rather than only praising successful outcomes. Commending your child on their willingness to try new things. This means parents must also learn to say ‘Yes’ if their child wants to learn to ride a bike, paint with their fingers, join an adventure club, run for class president and so forth.
This helps them overcome fear and see the world with new perspectives. Remember, daringness is the bravery and courage to experiment with the unknown. Join and support them on this journey.
Step 3: Coach Your Child To Enjoy Unstructured Play
Some of the best toys are ones that children repeatedly pick up because each play session requires them to apply new creativity. Open-ended toys that foster imagination and can be used in a variety of ways are especially well suited to impart Resourcefulness.
Parents and children can even experiment with making their own toys. From crafting your own wooden building blocks, to fidget spinners made out of cardboard, to building your own sailing boat from bamboo skewers and straws, the objective is to have the final product look nothing like what it started off being.
With each experience, be your children’s guide. Show them how you would approach the raw materials and turn them into something fun and colourful.
When you share your creative process, they get a front-row seat in seeing how an adult approaches problems and they’ll soon realise overcoming obstacles are just part of regular life. All that’s necessary is applying resourcefulness - the power to discover clever solutions to thrive in challenging environments.
Step 4: Teach Your Child To Be Well-Acquainted And Comfortable With Change
Your children will begin school, eventually transition into university students, begin a career and in due course, move out of the house. They’ll begin relationships and they’ll also end them. Each phase of growth comes with its own uncertainties, change, and novelty. Resilient children must be able to negotiate each level successfully in terms of adjusting their behavior, their thinking, and their emotional responses.
This is the fourth Pillar of Resilience, that of Adaptability- the ability to respond suitably and quickly to challenging environments so that they may thrive as and when events change.
Research has shown that children who are more adaptable had a higher likelihood of participating in class, enjoying school, being more satisfied with life, possess higher self-esteem and have a more concrete sense of the meaning and purpose in life.
To teach adaptability, encourage your children to seek out new or more information when faced with an uncertain situation. Or perhaps to take a different course of action. This can be as simple as asking a teacher for additional advice on how to complete a project. Asking for pointers is a great way to expand one’s thinking and incorporate new ideas to be more adaptable to new situations.
Step 5: Boost Your Child’s Confidence By Delegating Tasks And Chores
To tie all of AptaGro™’s 5 Pillars of Resilience together, the final key is to encourage your child to be Self-Reliant. Now self-reliance does not usually come from academic institutions. On the contrary. It is learned at home, as modeled by both mum and dad. As a parent, take time to delegate tasks to your child. Start with easy tasks that you know your child can complete with minimal supervision.
Then applaud them for being responsible when they have shown their capability and done something good. Simple tasks include cleaning their rooms, putting the dishes in the sink after meals, or arranging their toys neatly.
But be careful not to force your children to do things they are not good at. The last thing you want is to see them becoming frustrated and losing self-confidence in their abilities. Instead present your children with significant choices, allowing them to pick the tasks that they are good at versus those they struggle with.
After all, self-reliance is allowing children to make their own decisions while still being connected to family. It is about weighing the pros and cons and how it affects not only themselves but the whole family as well.
Building resilience is a journey
AptaGro™ 5 Pillars of Resilience have been attentively defined so parents will have a complete framework from which to impart the characteristics that promise future success. Parenthood is a lifelong journey and we’re excited to see you begin with a strong foundation.
AptaGro™ milk formula has itself been carefully crafted with a patented combination of prebiotics and probiotics to support your child’s body and learning development. This way, your child is ready to go out and experience the world, because with resilience, they can make the most out of life’s opportunities and challenges.