Building Resilience in Children and Teens: Giving Kids Roots and Wings by Kenneth R. Ginsburg MD MSEd FAAP

Description

Families, schools, and communities can prepare children and teens to THRIVE through both good and challenging times. Building Resilience in Children and Teens offers strategies to help kids from 18 months to 18 years build seven crucial “Cs” — competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping, and control — so they can excel in life and bounce back from challenges. The book describes how to raise authentically successful children who will be happy, hardworking, compassionate, creative, and innovative. Dr. Ginsburg reminds parents that our goal is to think in the present and prepare for the future, to remember that our real goal is to raise children to be successful 35-year-olds. It’s about more than immediate smiles or even good grades; it’s about raising kids to be emotionally and socially intelligent, to be able to recover from disappointment and forge ahead throughout their lives. The stable connection between caring adults and children is the key to the security that allows kids to creatively master challenges and reach their highest potential. This book offers concrete strategies to solidify those vital family connections.

Resilience is also about confronting the overwhelming stress kids face today. This invaluable guide offers coping strategies for facing the stresses of academic performance, high achievement standards, media messages, peer pressure, and family tension. Young people too commonly survive stress by indulging in unhealthy behaviors or by giving up completely The suggested solutions offered here are aimed at building a repertoire of positive coping strategies. Kids who have these healthy strategies in place may be less likely to turn to those quick, easy, but dangerous fixes that adults fear. The book includes a guide for teens to create their own customized positive coping strategies.

The second edition of this award-winning book continues to focus on parents, but now also offers wisdom about how schools and communities can best support families. It is updated throughout and entirely new chapters offer strategies on how best to: support military families, confront the negative portrayal of teens, prevent perfectionism and support authentic success. Finally, the book now guides parents how to recharge and rebound when their own resilience reaches its limits.