A Difference that Lasts

In Brief: Resilience Series by Harvard Center for the Developing Child
November Newsletter 2019, November 1, 2019

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In this newsletter, the Harvard Center for the Developing Child releases new videos and resources for parents, educators, and policy makers to help them to re-examine and commit to building resilience in evidence-based ways for preschool and school-age children. Three 3-minute videos gather the data, answer the questions, and offer the encouragement to take a deeper look at what we are doing. They promote maximum resilience for children, expanding their emotional toolkits when challenges ranging from everyday disappointments to life-changing crisis levels occur. What is strongest here is the simplicity of the message and the knowledge base behind that clarity. These three videos and their accompanying resources carry two messages. First, we can help children to have adaptive responses to even serious hardships. And second, to be the teachers and parents we want to be, we will need to use the science of resilience intentionally and successfully. A strong starting point for this intention, these small but powerful videos could inspire discussion in staff meetings or parent education gatherings, and lead to actions that make the kind of difference that lasts in the lives of our students.