Written by: Alyssa Dallas, LICSW Behavioral Health Clinician, Outpatient Psychotherapist
Schools do a good job of identifying children’s weaknesses or growing edges; however, resilience comes from using our strengths to conquer challenges. Parents and caregivers can use the child’s strengths to plan appropriate and individualized strategies that build our children’s resilience.
There are two free resources online that can help assess strengths, depending on the child’s age. For children 10 and under, parents and children can review this Child Strengths Checklist.
Children ages 10-17 can take the VIA Youth Strengths Assessment, a short quiz that will identify their specific strengths. In the Via Youth Strengths Assessment, there are 24 possible strengths, including creativity, fairness, wisdom, humor, and perspective.
Your family isn't alone in this. Our providers can help.
Planned coping strategies can be enhanced using the unique strengths we identify in our children. For each strength, help your child practice using a coping strategy when there is a minor upset so that the child can build confidence that these strategies will work during times of more difficulty. For example, if your child has any of the following strengths, you can consider these strategies:
Starting the new school year during this ambiguous time with unprecedented stressors will require unprecedented coping strategies. Understanding and integrating our children’s strengths into plans for coping with the new school year can help ensure that our children have as successful a year as possible. When children understand their own strengths, they have the confidence to overcome adversity and use their own resilience to succeed.
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