Meter, 0. 1995. Th for America from Harlem Boston Beacon Rosenthal, R. &L. jcabson, 1868. aseroom. New Yor Rinehart & Winston Rutter M. 1979, Fiteen thousand hours Cambridge Harvard University Press, New York M EE, &RS. Smith ‘odds. New York: C rglaboutpermissonsasp. A research-based practice for educators, by educators! : Project Construct: The Early Childhood Framework for Curriulum and Assessment (2002 Edition) provides a developmentally appropriate, research-based approach to foster young children’s growth in the critical areas of language development, mathematical and scientific thinking, as well as personal and social development. Developed by practicing teachers, administrators, teacher educators, and child-care professionals, the Project Construct approach offers early childhood educators practical strategies and resources {o support children’s ways of thinking and challenge them to construct new knowledge—all within the contexe of an active, vibrant learaing community For mere information abour our comprehensive professional development program, call us coll free at (800) 335-PCNC or visit cour website at wovew:projectconstruct org, 52 Resources on RESILIENCY Benard, B. 1991 demic resilience among African Fostering resiliency American males. Education and in kids: Protective Urban Society 24 (1): 113-31 factors in the family. /Cesarone, 8. 1999. Fostering the school, and commu: resilience of children, Chidhood nity. ERIC ED 335781, Education 75 (3), 182-84 Benard, 8. 1991 Protec. Cesarone, B., ed. 1999. Resilience tive factors in fostering resi. guide: A collection of resources on iency in kids Family, school and resilience in chiiren and famles. community Portland, OR. Western Champaign, 1L ERIC Clearinghouse Regional Center for Drug Free on Elementary and Early Childhood Schiools and Communities, Education and the National Parent Benard, B, 1995. Fostering resiience _, Information Network. in children, ERIC Digest ED ¥ iriing, J. 1999. Inclusion: Enhancing 386327. Online: ww.ericfacilty resilience Preventing School Failure netidatabases/ERIC_Digesis! 43 (2): 125-28, 2386327 html Dark, R. 1983. Family life and schooi Benard, B. 1997, Turning it around achievement: Why poor Black chil for ali youth: From risk'o resilience, dren succeed or fail. Chicago: Uni ERIC/CUE Digest, no, 126. versity of Chicago Press. Braddock, JH, D.A. Royster, LF Gardner, H. 1993. Creating minds: An Winfield, & R Hawkins. 1991 anatomy of creativity seen through Bouncing back. Sports and aca- the lives of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Elliot, Graham and Gandhi. New York: Basic. 1 Gardner, H. 1993. The unschoofed mind. New York: Basic. Gardner, H. 1995. Reflection on mut liple intelligences: Myths and mes. sages. Phi Delta Kappan 77: 200-09. Gardner, H. 1999. The understanding pathway, Educational Leadership 57 (3): 12-17 Garmezy, N. 1985, Stress-resistant children: The search far protective factors, In Recent research in devel: ‘opmental psychopathology, ed. E Stevenson, 213-33, Oxford, UK Pergamon, Garmezy, N. 1991. Resiliency and vulnerability to adverse developmen. tal outcomes associated with poverty. American Behavioral Scientist 34 416-30. ‘Huffman, D., & N. Kracke, eds, 1997, Resiliency—A paradigm shift for schools. Special issue, Research’ | Practice 5 (1). Online: hitp:lieduca- tion. umn.edulcarei/Reports! Rpractice/Spring97/default nimi Kaitzer, J. 2000. Promoting resilience Helping young children and parents affected by substance abuse, domes- tic violence, and depression in the context of welfare reform. Children and Welfare Reform, Issue Brief No 8. New York: National Center for Children in Poverty, Online 7 ‘wwe ncep.org/pud_cwr00h, him roject Pp Vonstruct Inseitutes & Workshops Seandards-based curriculum materials Performance-based assessment tools Ongoing support Young Child + January 2008that was funay for them, One child imitated a bird in a marvelous way wy MINUTE ing ta reproduce the iaughing and smiling happily walk not only highlighted humor but also developed listening skill personal communication skills, and having the fun of hared experience. The children told about another of pumor cur ‘was try s, children could act out * somethin happened to at they found fuany fon the funniest story, and the humor prize of the week went to the winner This activity enhanced cop ing skills, built vocabulary, honed resentation ski ren act as critics and judges. I believe that as part of a humor curriculum, each teacher and his students should develop together the group's criteria for success. This is a meaningful way to intro- juce the importance of standards, In 2005, standards are critical in every facet of life class voted s, and Jet the chik Young Children + January 2008 Summary This look at resiliency develop- ment through heightened sensory awareness; high, positive expect: tions, a clear understanding of on strengths relating to accomplish: nent; and a developing sense of humor hopefully cap encouras io foster enriching coping behaviors in childr These tour fac resiliency seem crit: cally important for young children tbe trapped into thinking that there are pre: cisely four resilience factors or seven or three, Itis not possible to succinctly categorize human resiliency Educators today need hildren search for the hs that equip them. > help unique stre no matter the circumstances, to i the individual potential jowever, we must avoid the to simplily as we strive the resilience of children. Today's teacher must understand that development is part of a very Complex unstable phenomenon Garmezy and Rutter (1983), focus: ing on the study of competency, give insight into the fact that sency may not be fully attainable by all However, Albert Camus U us the worth of trying: “In the midst fi there was in me an ible summer winter, I ally learned References Building Children’s RESILIENCY One effort thal focuses on resi iency in children age two to six is an initiative of the Devereux Early Childhood Foundation in Villanova, Pennsylvania The Devereux Early Childhood Initiative is a strength: ‘based approach implemented in Head Start and other early child hood programs. The.prostam consists of an integrated approach that no! only provides a tool for assessing children’s protective factors and sereening challenging behaviors but also suggests egies for fostering resiliency ‘The Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA), 4 nationally normed assessment of within-the child protective fact dren age two to five, is the program's assessment tool. Supportive ma: terials provide home and class- room approaches for supportin and enhancing resilient behaviors {An infantitoddler version of the DECA is under development More information is available online www devereuxearlychildhood.org.performance at basketball indicates strength in that area, The gym teacher was reinforcing one of the intelligences this child displayed Children’s sell-concepts result partly irom the expectations others have for them. Their sell-concepts ‘in tum alfect the expectations they have for themselves. The school setting provides many opportuni (9 eficourage high, positive expectations. ardner (1983) explores intell erice interns ordillerent ‘irames ‘ofimind.” In the chart below, each of “The aight intelligences Gncleding Naturalist, which Gardner proposed later (1998)) is accompanied by Helping Children Realize Potentiai through _y Their Multiple intelligences eee iene increuen err iene Tell stories. Let children dictate their stories to the teacher or an adult volunteer. Transcribers read back each story and give the child his or her own print copy Create poetry orally and in writing. Imagine a character Ask children to describe the physical chafacteristics at, dog. Draw visual Use numbers to create calendars, Make itemized numbered lists—counting anything and éverything Estimate how many of something (pennies, seeds, pebbles, acorns) are in a jar, box, bowl Listen to various types of music. Sing songs and clap 10 the music. Hum, whistle, or use bodily response to the music. Write about what's fun in dancing or playing basketball and other sports. Make up skits or panto- mimes in response fo literature or music: Dance in all kinds of movement styles. Play pin-the-tail on-the-donkey. Throw and catch a ball Try all kinds of ‘Smell flowers and look closely to concentrate on their Name flowers and notice the many differences (reds, pinks, etc ) Take walks to focus on enhancing and, Eee cutss linguistic to illustrate and play-act the role. Play word games and solve puzzles spatial they see in a bird, squirrel likenesses of any objects lagical mathematical musical bodily- kinesthetic sports colors heightening sensory awareness. interpersonal intrapersonat naturalist 50 ‘Act out situations that children encounter in classroom activities Portray emotions such as sadness, regret, and so forth that everyone experiences. Make books identifying animals, birds, plants, and so on White stories and poetry about nature. suggestions that can be modified and enhanced to match the devel: opmental and unique needs of young children, 3, Aclear and developing under- standing of one’s strengths relating to accomplishment The most powertul example of this concept came from an eight: year-old who seid, “Well, you know 1'm not so good at ball games, but mana eader," This eld ‘understood the concept of knowing one's strengths and ably used his personal interactions with both adults and peers to cast success in the light of what he could accom plish. Developing such a clear un derstanding supports and rein iorces children’s high, positive expectations 4, Aheightened, developing sense of humor All of the children | interviewes seemed to have a well-developed sense of the playful, Humor is not an innate gift, but it can and should be cultivated, It is a frame that can help Keep things in perspective. The more children learn about humor, the more they become sensitized to it, and the more humor enters into everyday life (Kozol 2000). Philoso- pher Reinhold Neibuhr emphasized the importance of humor and the need for using it when trying to make sense out of some of the incongruities of life (Kleinman 2000). Children need this skill more than ever belore Ina second grade classroom I visited, each week the teacher featured an activity that highlighted humor. I joined the children on a humor walk, The teacher asked students to walk silently and listen for any sounds, notice sidewalk cracks, and watch for signs to present to the class in a humorous manner. Alter the walk the students shared what they saw and heard Young Children» January 2005Children’s adaptive approaches For two years I systematically interviewed families and young hildven age five to eight who were administra identified by the schi tion as functioning well in their irban schoo) settings, Each inter- singh tio) and subs iamily problems, abandon: jment, and death in the — mily: Despite negative life Events and stress, the children and their families seemed to be adapting They dis and surviving played resilient beha ‘irough their active par oh in classroom dafice, well-de sped listening skills, and parative child-to-chald hild inter amilies or individual children interviewed showed adentical sets of yehaviors. Although resiliency is an individual ized skill, the resiliency of the individuals interviewed reveale some common factors that are Important to examine. Four factors 4 resihency that | identilied are outlined here, with examples of classroom activities to help develo and enrich each aspect 1, Heightened sensory awareness e kindergarten boy who first racy lived in a which the streets contained a great eal of garbage and drug users paraphernalia. As I walked to his school, I was startled by what I saw and could only focus on the unpleas {the journey. On meeting 48 the child, Lv a with repugnan lirst question was, “What is it like m the walk that my ibe th lary words can you use in telling about your trip home? What new ch us about your feel \Soked at me and smi “T's wondertul,” he $3 know the streets have been lassticized, and all the litle sieces of glass that are in the paving material shine and sparkle— iF like finely chopped diamonds. walk? What else do you on the way home from scho' 2. High, positive expectations One of the eight-yea old girls interviewed said that she was goi to be a female basket ball star. ‘Iknow Iw 8 basketball “The importance of teacher expectations and feedback has be the focus of much search, starting with the classic study com pleted by Rosenthal and Jacobson (15 This study showed student perior {tected by teach s! expectations of the child, The student perlormanéé was Every day my grandmother walks with me (0 school, and we look el the street and count the colors. 01 sunny days there is silver and gold, but on dark days there are purple and dark colors. We count the colors and name them With this boy's positive expert ‘comes from aking he name P the mytholog) who creates a female statue and then with the help of the gods it to hfe. The gym teacher .ctations and feedback al story positive exp h ightened this git!’s motivation id her to succeed. family F other adult who accompanies the child to and tr Howard Gardner (1983) describes school can become ap our multiple intelligences and outlines relevant behaviors that accompany each ntelligence. Bodh kinesthetic intelh is one of these, and the eight-year-old integral partner in th experience The walk provides a tool for abserva. s thé teacher it the tion follows ug next day. How many square id Young Children + January 2005Children’s Capacity to —=@ nevetop Resiliency How to Nurture it day's world, full of change, sncertainty, and the unexpected, challenges everyone's ability to -ope. What coping skills must we nurture, enrich, and enhance to help ildren navigate success{ully in a simplex society? Resiliency must b ot only is it essential for we teach, but itis a ital skill for ourselves as we strive enable every child to become all hat he or she is capable of By delinition res: apability to rebound ¢ ng back the powe sacher help young sth How ¢ hildren de ability to bounce back from set sacks every child experiences 11 op this cap: 1 or another as a fact of everyday hil Resilie Resiliency-1s aset of oe : al protective mec asetel person's response risk situations: slin, PhD, is an utban of academic programs f {at St Jonn’s Univer City Her primary area of is resilient behavior Young Children» January 2005 SS Deirdre Breslin mechanisms operate at turning . points during the individual’ life (utter 1984; Garmezy 1991). Resit jency is a valuable coping skill for all young children. of the remaining two out of three risk adolescents, two-thirds are successful adults by age 32 The gr about resiliency provides ¢ information on the ways individual; develop successfully despite of rese ving bod: ‘The defeating label “at risk” _ Labeling matters, and thi adversity and on the lack of educa _ tive power in risk factors (Rutter 1979; Lanni 1989; McLaughhn, Irbey & Langman 1994, Meier 1995). These facts have profound implic tions for deciding what approach to emphasize when helping today's mnore it matters” ( bson 1968, 3). Son behavior patterns. “approaches and soli: id perpetuate a problem perspective, and children "at risk” In \s ermph childten develop posit skills. ti administer ihe chird Asa result rengilis and competen- cies a child possesses that could promote ad- aptation and wellness Researcher Werner and her colleague Ruth Smith (1985) docu: ment that one in three children considered to be aijrisk develops competent, capable, caring young persor age 18. In their follow-up work (Werner & Smith a7