I saw this on X this week and it made me think.
Over the years I have worked with many children who have faced huge challenges in their life, but they deal with their situation and find a way to move forward with a positive outlook on life.
Other children experience similar challenges, but they do not cope and are not able to find a way out of their situation.
Why does this happen?
- Some children have the emotional support that they need at the right time. A positive connection and support from someone within the family, or a friend, or a teacher, or someone else in their life is enough to help them work their way out of a desperate situation.
- The emotional development stage of a child will also determine how well they will cope with a challenging situation. Siblings may deal with living in difficult circumstances in opposing ways because emotionally they are at different stages and so they will have different perspectives on the situation, and they will have developed different coping mechanisms.
- All our personalities are different, and so we all deal with things in different ways. Some children are naturally optimistic and will be able to see beyond the situation they are currently in; they will believe that life will get better for them, whereas others will not be able to see beyond the moment they are living through and will feel like there is no way out.
- Some children will look like they are coping but may be hiding their true feelings behind a façade. Never assume a child is ok – they may just not be ready to talk or may not feel they have anyone they can trust.
Reach Behaviour 