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Learned Optimism :Tips and Techniques to Help Your Child Improve Their Outlook and Beat Pessimism.Learned optimism is a great skill your child will benefit from. How optimistic is your child? Optimism or seeing the glass half full, a key factor to your child’s wellbeing. Many children seem to have a negative attitude or an attitude of helplessness. Learned optimism is a strategy to help your child learn to have a more positive outlook. Parents and educators have a key role in developing the skill of being optimistic in their children.Check out this page to see the
benefits of optimism. Top Tips To Develop Optimism for Parents and Teachers1. Reframing activities-when you child say something negative, for example, “I will never win the race” encourage them to reframe their point of view, for example: I will be getting fit and healthy today”2. Download the free optimism cards and try them out. Look at the situations and then together with your child think about how to change the situation into a positive one. 3. Be a good role model and use the techniques above yourself. As always seeing is the key way children learn! Practice what you preach. 4. Ask your child to think of 5 positive reasons or outcomes to a scenario that they are not optimistic about. 5. Ask your child what he/she can do to make situation better.
Learned Optimism talks on this video clip about building a positive outlook. What is the definition of learned optimism? It is a term from positive psychology meaning you can develop the skill of being happy or positive. The opposite is learned helplessness in which people feel incapable and negative in various situations. Optimism vs Pessimism Permanence: Optimists feel events are more temporary that pessimists. For example, after failing a test, an optimist may say “That was disappointing, next time I will do better” while a pessimist may say “My life is ruined, now I will never get into university” , Pervasiveness: When a optimist faces a challenge they put that challenge as one area of many in their lives, a pessimist on the other hand tends to generalise the feeling of helplessness across their whole life for example, “ I can’t do anything right.” Hope: Pessimists believe negative events are permanent while optimists see these are temporary stumbling blocks Personalization: Optimists are generally more confident that pessimists. Pessimists blame themselves for failures while optimists tend to view the blame as outside of themselves.
You might also like to see these topics related to further developing children's emotional intelligence. Using books to help children deal with different emotions through
bibliotherapy
and
children's response to literature
For further reading about Emotional intelligence on this site see:
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Emotional Intelligence Resources |