8 bounce back teaching resilience to young people helengrath

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Why teach young people to be resilient?

Human resilience is the capacity to cope well

with times of adversity or hardship (and

even be strengthened by them) It is the

ability to bounce back from difficult times to

a fulfilling life while retaining a positive

sense of self

  Courage

  Managing feelings

  Humour

  Relationship skills (based on pro-social values)

  Self-knowledge (eg ability & character

strengths)

  Goal setting skills (eg persistence,

problem-solving, resourcefulness, planning)

  Optimistic thinking skills

  Helpful thinking skills (eg not catastrophising)

Post-traumatic Growth?

This is more likely to happen in young

people when:

•  They have been taught skills for

problem-solving, coping and optimistic thinking

(especially positive reinterpretation and realistic recognition of both losses and gains)

•  They are given caring social support from

adults and peers and opportunities to share and learn from their experiences and feelings

  Developed and trialled in 2001 with funding from

DET (Victoria) as part of drug education

  Adopted by thousands of Australian primary schools

as part of their approach to wellbeing and

behaviour (secondary schools use it as pastoral care)

  KidsMatter (2008-2009) was a $12m initiative of the

Australian Commonwealth Government + Principals Australia + Australian Psychological Society +

Beyond Blue Funding was given to 101 primary

schools to teach social and emotional skills to their students 64% of the schools that selected a

curriculum program selected Bounce Back!

Bounce Back! Awards

  First edition received the 2003 Robin Winkler

Award for Excellence in Applied Community Psychology by the Australian Psych Society

  The Perth-Kinross Educational Authority in

Scotland was awarded a silver community project medal in 2010 for the successful

implementation of Bounce Back! in 35 of their

district primary schools

  Winner of the 2010-2011 award for The Best

Australian Teaching Resource for the second

edition (Australian Publishers Association)

Other Bounce Back! Implementations

In 2010 the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood (DEECD) provided local community mental health professionals and teachers in 46 bushfire-affected schools to receive books and

Psycho-social Recovery Project (and copies have since been sent to flood-

affected schools)

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In the aftermath of the fires we found

the activities and themes embodied in

the Bounce Back! program really

helped us to get our students

expressing and dealing with their

emotions It has become an integral

and highly valued part of our teaching

and learning program Our students

are more empathic, in tune with their

emotions and able to see positives

because of the work we do in this

area

PRINCIPAL

(Bushfire-affected School)

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The students often bring the Circle

Time discussions round to aspects

of the bushfire situation

TEACHER (Bushfire-affected School)

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Bounce Back has allowed us to talk

usefully about some very sad

things

TEACHER (Bushfire-affected School)

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I talked with my family about it

and now my parents say it back to

me - it’s not the end of the world,

bad times don’t last etc

I discussed the ideas with my

parents and they already knew

them

STUDENTS

Other Bounce Back! Implementations

orphanage and in some South African schools

  The Blossom Project uses some of the

materials and key principles from the

program

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The BOUNCE BACK Acronym

Bad times don’t last Things get better Stay optimistic Other people can help if you talk to them Get a reality

check

Unhelpful thinking makes you feel more upset Think

again

Nobody’s perfect Not you and not others

Concentrate on the positives, no matter how small and

use laughter

Everybody experiences sadness, hurt, failure, rejection,

and setbacks sometimes, not just you They are a

normal part of life Try not to personalise them

Blame fairly How much of what happened was

because of YOU, OTHERS or BAD LUCK

Accept what you can’t change and try and change

what you can

Catastrophising exaggerates your worries Don’t

believe the worst possible picture

Keep things in perspective It’s one part of your

life

ABOUT BOUNCE BACK

Key features of Bounce Back!

•  Flexible

•  Mainly used as a whole-school K-6 curriculum

program

•  Selected components can also be used with

individual children, small groups or as part of

parent education

•  All components/strategies are evidence-informed

•  Mostly taught through children’s literature

(especially picture books ), literacy and language

activities and higher-order thinking activities

Key features of Bounce Back (cont.)

•  Circle Time

•  Based on Positive Psychology and

Cognitive Behavioural Psychology (CBT)

•  Key points are provided at the start of each curriculum unit to provide a ‘map’

•  A wide range of online interactive

whiteboard activities, games and

thinking tools

•  Parent information sheets

Unit 1:Core Values

Unit 2:People Bouncing Back

up activities

•  Courage means facing fear, not the

absence of fear

not necessarily of the same things)

courage

Unit 4:The Bright Side

understanding that bad times are temporary etc)

Peanuts (Charles Schultz)






Quiz:
Are
you
a
posi*ve
tracker


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•  Naming and recognising emotions

•  Using low-key emotional words

•  Generating and amplifying positive emotions

•  Changing a bad mood into a better mood

•  Managing negative emotions (eg: quiet time)

•  Empathy

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Unit 6:Relationships

Unit 7:Humour

spirits and providing respite

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Unit 8: No Bullying

•  What it is, what it isn’t and why some

people do it

•  Self-protection and cybersafety

•  Resisting negative peer pressure

•  Skills and courage for supporting others

Unit 9: Success

•  Self-knowledge

•  Strengths (and evidence for them)

•  Goal setting

•  Organisation & time management

•  Self-belief and having a go

•  Persistence

•  Solving problems resourcefully

•  A sense of meaning and/or purpose

(by ‘Canary Pete’)

Setting and Achieving Goals: WINNERS

What are your strengths? How do you know?

Interesting mistakes will happen Don’t be afraid to

make them

No effort, no results

Never give up (well, hardly ever)

Risk taking is sometimes necessary (but think first)