Resilience for Your 2-Year-Old

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Now Is the Right Time!

As a parent or someone in a parenting role, you play an essential role in your 2-year-old child’s success. There are intentional ways to grow a healthy parent-child relationship, and growing resilience provides a perfect opportunity.

Resilience is the ability to overcome challenges and adversities. You can often see resilience when people are able to thrive despite having many challenges to overcome. Having a loving and consistent relationship with a trusted adult grows resilience in children.¹ Other ways to build children’s strength to handle challenges is to help them identify their strengths and to form a strong sense of identity including pride in their cultural or racial heritage.

No matter how many positive supports a child has in their life, however, too much adversity can have long-term negative effects on development. Reducing serious adversities from children’s lives is the best way to keep them healthy.²

Throughout the early years, children are facing developmentally appropriate challenges and learning whether or not an adult can be trusted to be there for them when needed. For example, when a two-year-old is thinking, “Is this ok to touch? Are you still here with me?” seeing that one of their important adults is there — paying attention and assuring them that everything is ok — gives the child a sense that it is ok to approach a challenge because their adult is there for them.

We all face challenges to being resilient. As your child is developing, it is important that they can turn to you to figure out when a challenge is the right size for them and how to overcome feeling scared, hurt, or excluded. Resilience means being willing to face a right-sized challenge even if a challenging experience in the past was difficult to overcome.

The steps below include specific, practical strategies to prepare you to develop resilience and build a relationship with your child that includes reliable and unconditional support and love.

Why Resilience?

Your child’s openness to engage in manageable challenges and recover from difficult experiences are essential to developing lifelong resilience. You can begin by exposing your child to challenges that are just the right size for them, offer just enough support for them to know they can trust you, and help them recognize and feel a sense of success and empowerment when they master the experience.

Today, in the short term, resilience can create

• opportunities for your child to have new experiences;
• a sense of confidence that your child can manage a certain level of difficulty; and
• a strong connection between the two of you as you navigate these challenges together and triumph in successes.

Tomorrow, in the long term, helping your child develop resilience

• develops a sense of safety, security, and a belief in self;
• provides a firm foundation for exploration, learning, and speaking up;
• prepares your child for handling inevitable unexpected challenges in life;
• builds skills in self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making; and
• deepens family trust and intimacy.

Five Steps for Growing Resilience

This five-step process helps you and your child grow resilience together. It also builds important critical life skills in your child. The same process can be used to address other parenting issues as well (learn more about the process).

Step 1. Get Your Child Thinking by Getting Their Input

Two-year-olds may use short phrases to communicate and may cry when frustrated that they don’t know all of the words to express how they are feeling. Paying close attention to your child’s facial expressions, body movements, and sounds helps you better understand what they are trying to communicate. Your efforts to learn from your child build trust and create empathetic interactions that let them know that you are interested in what they are thinking.

Understanding what your child is thinking and feeling will make a big difference for setting the stage for resilience. Your child will give you lots of cues about whether a challenge feels too big or too small for them. Every child is different, and your own child may change from day-to-day in how willing they are to take on challenges and to be resilient when those experiences become difficult.

You are the person that will know your child’s cues better than anyone else, and you will be able to anticipate if talking to someone new, trying a new food, having a new childcare provider, or another experience is right for today. Is your child feeling particularly tired? Did they just get hurt or are they hungry? Knowing how they are doing and what their facial expressions and body language mean will help you decide if a challenge is the right size for your child, right now.

In paying attention and noting small differences in your child’s cries, body language, and speaking, you

• show them that they can trust you to notice how they feel;
• let them know that you will help them to face challenges;
• will help them to advocate for themselves if something feels like too much for right now or if they need more support;
• tell them that they can trust you to help them gain a sense of what experiences are right for risk-taking and which ones are not; and
• deepen your ability to communicate with one another.

Actions

• Help your child notice and name their own cues so they can develop self-awareness and learn to trust their own feelings. This includes describing and naming the pride they may feel when they have gotten through a challenging situation. Pointing out the resilience that they demonstrate will help them notice it and know it is there when the next challenge arises.
• Each time there is an opportunity, share how you are feeling and ask your child how they feel: “I am feeling happy; are you feeling happy?” Two-year-olds do not yet have a feelings vocabulary and are not able to describe their body sensations when they are dealing with any big feeling. They will need your support to be successful.
  • For example, if your child is with others who are all facing a challenging situation – such as the first day in a new child care room – help your child notice their own thoughts and reactions and those of the other children. You might even name what expressions and body language you notice: “That little girl just ran over to the block area with a big smile on her face. Her running and her smile make me think she is excited to check out the blocks in this new room.”
• When reading books, look at the images of people and ask your child what they notice about the characters that shows them being resilient. Ask, “How do you think the horse is feeling? Did he get through that big challenge?”
• If your child is feeling unsure about how to describe their feelings or how others are feeling, consider asking questions, naming what you notice, and leaving plenty of quiet space after your questions so they have an opportunity to share their ideas too.
  • “How did you feel when you first saw the new classroom? I noticed some children were very excited about the toys.”
  • “I am feeling happy to see you . How do you feel right now?”
  • “How do you think you will feel when we come back tomorrow morning?”

Step 2. Teach New Skills by Interactive Modeling

As a parent or someone in a parenting role, there is a lot to learn about understanding your child’s rhythms, temperaments, and needs. Because of all this learning, you will make mistakes and even poor choices. How you handle those moments can determine how you help build your child’s resilience. Offering yourself the grace and permission to not be perfect can ease your anxiety in responding to your child’s needs. Learning about developmental milestones can help you better understand what your child is going through.³

• Two-year-olds are increasingly aware of their separateness from others. This new awareness can create fears including separation anxiety, and it can also lead to defiance as they attempt to assert themselves and test how they can exert control.
• Two-year-olds are also interested in demonstrating their independence, though they are still learning everyday skills like putting on shoes or fastening a coat. This can lead to frustrations as they are not fully capable of acting independently.
• Two-year-olds are at the very earliest stages of developing a feelings vocabulary and do not yet understand what their big feelings mean or how to manage them.
• Two-year-olds may struggle with asserting their needs or communicating when upset.

Teaching is different than just telling. Teaching builds basic skills, grows problem-solving abilities, and sets your child up for success. Teaching also involves modeling and practicing the positive behaviors you want to see, promoting skills, and preventing problems.

Actions

• Use your tone of voice and facial expression to help your child celebrate when they have gotten through a change such as a new child care arrangement, sleeping in a new place, trying a new food, and so on.
• Read and “pretend play” together.
  • During reading time, select a book of faces to help your child learn to identify the different feelings of other children. Point out what you notice and how you can tell what each child is feeling. Be sure to point out moments when children successfully overcome difficulties.
  • After reading a story together, act out what feelings look like together. “First she looked sad (make a sad face) and then she got help and looked happier (make a happy face).”
• Share your thoughts and feelings. Talk about what you notice, how you are feeling, why you are feeling it, and what signs you are giving even when it’s not comfortable. “I did not expect this room to be so messy. I don’t know how we are going to be able to clean it up before our friends arrive. This big mess is making me feel very worried. Maybe I will start to feel better after we get all of the puzzle pieces picked up. Can you help too? I am sure we can handle this big mess if we work together.”
• Talk aloud about the ways in which you respond to your own big feelings: “It made me feel so much better to tell you how I was feeling and to ask for help.”
• Grow optimism. In addition to growing these essential skills that foster resilience, there are beliefs and attitudes that you can promote. For example, when your child is struggling to complete a task, you can respond,
  • “Some things can feel really hard but then it is possible to get through them after all.”
  • “Do you remember last time when this seemed hard? You took a deep breath, and were able to do it.”
  • “I wonder if we can do something that will help us get through this challenge.”

Step 3. Practice to Grow Skills, Grow Resilience, and Develop Habits

Your daily routines are opportunities for you and your child to practice new vital skills if you seize those chances. With practice, your child will improve over time as you give them the chance with support. Practice grows vital new brain connections that strengthen (and eventually form habits) each time your child works hard toward a goal or demonstrates belief in themselves.

Practice also provides important opportunities to grow self-efficacy – a child’s sense that they can do a task successfully. This leads to confidence. It helps them understand that mistakes and failures are part of learning.

To grow resilience, it is important to practice noticing feelings, engaging in just-right-sized challenges, noticing the trusted adults that are always there to help, and remembering the child’s strengths and pride in their own culture that can help them get through challenging situations.

Actions

• Learn about your child’s development. Each new age presents different challenges. Being informed about your child’s developmental milestones offers you guidance on appropriate challenges.
• Provide opportunities for your child to do things that are more challenging than what they have done before. The goal is to come up with experiences that are just beyond what they are comfortable with. If they have already mastered a short slide, is there another playground that you can go to with a bigger slide that they can try? If it is too big, look for a medium one they can go down so it feels like a successful experience.
• Provide books, dolls, and other materials at home that give children a chance to see people who face challenges and do not necessarily get through them the first time. Do you tell stories of someone who was not able to succeed at first, but kept trying? Describe how that person is building resilience to get through challenging times.
• Use your child’s dolls or stuffed animals to act out moments of resilience-building. This is a good way to practice facing really big challenges that your child might be experiencing or about to experience, such as a move, a new baby in the family, or a major medical situation. You can name the feelings that the doll might feel and come up with some strategies to help the doll feel stronger to face the challenge. Should the doll take a breath and ask for help? Should the doll bring something that will make them feel better? Does the doll have special skills that can help them in this moment?

Step 4. Support Your Child’s Development and Success

At this point, you’ve shown your child that you can be trusted to be there when they need you. Your child is learning to notice when they feel worry, fear, or stress when encountering new situations. Together, you brainstorm ways to get through a challenge and recognize the pride and success of feeling resilient.

Now, you can offer support when it’s needed by reteaching, monitoring, and coaching. This support tells your child that you see the challenge they are facing, and you are here to support them. Parents naturally offer support as they see their child fumble with a situation in which they need help. This is no different.

Actions

• Recognize effort by using “I notice…” statements like: “I noticed that you were nervous about having a new childcare provider, and you got through it and had a good time afterall. I love seeing that.”
• On days with extra challenges when you can see your child is scared of new people or situations, offer confidence in your child’s ability to face the new. In a gentle, non-public way, you can say, “Remember how last time it seemed like it would be hard but you tried it and it turned out to be fun? I thought you might like this challenge too.”
• Actively reflect on how your child is feeling when approaching challenges. You can offer reflections like:
  • “You seem worried about playing with the new kids in your class.” Offering comfort when facing new situations can help your child gain a sense of security and face them rather than backing away.
  • You can also offer comfort items to help your child face new challenges. “Would your bear help you feel better?” Bring a comfort item with you as you face new challenges.

Step 5. Recognize Effort and Quality to Foster Motivation

No matter how old your child is, your praise and encouragement are their sweetest reward.

If your child is working to grow their skills – even in small ways – it will be worth your while to recognize it. Your recognition can go a long way to promoting positive behaviors and expanding your child’s resilience. Your recognition also promotes safe, secure, and nurturing relationships — a foundation for strong communication and a healthy relationship with you as they grow.

You can recognize your child’s efforts with praise, high fives, and hugs. Praise is most effective when you name the specific behavior you want to see more of. For example, “You went back and tried again — love seeing that!”

Avoid bribes. A bribe is a promise for a behavior, while praise is special attention after the behavior. While bribes may work in the short term, praise grows lasting motivation for good behavior and effort. For example, instead of saying, “If you try this new game, I will give you a sticker” (which is a bribe), try recognizing the behavior after. “You tried the new game. I really appreciate that!”

Actions

• Recognize and call out when it is going well. “I notice you have gotten more comfortable coming to grandma’s house and spending the night with her!”
• Recognize small steps along the way. Don’t wait for the big accomplishments – like doing something independently – in order to recognize effort. Remember that your recognition can work as a tool to promote more positive behaviors. Find small ways your child is making an effort and let them know you see them. “You faced that challenge even though it was hard. I like seeking that!”
• Notice when your child tries something new or recovers smoothly from a challenging situation. These conversations might start happening naturally during your bedtime routine or when snuggling up to read stories together.
• Build celebrations into your everyday routine. Promote joy and happiness by laughing, singing, dancing, hugging, and snuggling to appreciate one another.

Closing

Engaging in these five steps is an investment that builds your skills as an effective parent to use on many other issues and builds important skills that will last a lifetime for your child. Throughout this tool, there are opportunities for children to become more self-aware, to deepen their social awareness, and to work on their relationship skills.

References

[1] Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University. Resilience. Retrieved on February 20, 2020 at https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/resilience/.

[2] Beardslee, W.R., Avery, M.W., Ayoub, C.C., Watts, C.L. & Lester, P. (September, 2010). Building resilience: The power to cope with adversity. Zero to Three. Retrieved on March 25, 2020 at https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/357-building-resilience.

[3] Pathways.org Developmental Milestones. Retrieved on November 25, 2019 at https://pathways.org.

Recommended Citation: Center for Health and Safety Culture. (2020). Resilience. Age 2. Retrieved from https://parentingmontana.org.