Set Positive Childhood Experiences

This is my major take-away and I can’t emphasize this enough…

Positive childhood experiences can offset adverse childhood experiences (Bethell et al, 2019). Resilience occurs through positive influences, supportive relationships, structured environments, protection against harm, social development, and academic achievement. Realized that outward resilience may not match inward resilience. Make an effort to talk about feelings, believe what happened, set new traditions, provide a sense of belonging, find a community of at least two non-parent adults who take a genuine interest in your children’s life, and ensure you have a safe home.

The same holds true for bullying. Bullying is a form of violence where a person repeatedly and habitually seeks to harm, aggres, coerce or intimidate those whom they perceive as vulnerable or weaker due to physical size, psychological, social power, or other factors. Behaviors may include teasing, physical aggression, noncompliance to adults, gossiping, talking back, fighting, and disruption. It can occur across settings including settings like the cafeteria, playground, gym, bus area, and hallway. Bullying language may not be necessary to reduce bullying. Shift the focus to observable, appropriate behaviors. Train to teach children to discriminate between respect and disrespect, teach scripted replies and minimize social reinforcement using the 3-step procedure - stop-walk-talk (Ross & Horner, 2009).

Community Voices (https://www.cchers.org) teaches students to use photovoice to document experiences about health, photography, journalism, and community advocacy.