Childhood trauma M5 D

All children face adversities in life. A child’s individual and family histories and the resources that are available in the community can “tip the scale” to increase the chances of positive outcomes and encourage the development of resilience.
Review the article Supportive Relationships and Active Skill-Building Strength the Foundations of Resilience. Then watch these videos from Harvard University’s Center for the Developing Child to learn more about resilience in children and their communities:

What is Resilience? (2015 video, 2 minutes in length, captioned)
How Resilience is Built (2015 video, 2 minutes in length, captioned)
The Science of Resilience (2015 video, 2 minutes in length, captioned)
Then post a response to the following:
Based on what you learned from the videos and readings explain what the fulcrum represents and how it helps us to understand resilience in children who have experienced toxic stress or trauma.
What are some individual (child) and family factors that help determine whether the child moves toward positive outcomes or negative outcomes after facing adversity or trauma?
What are some resources that communities and societies need to help improve the resilience of children?
What programs or services would you propose in your own community to help build resilience among children? Explain why you believe these services are needed and how they would help.
Discussion Participation Tips

Your initial post should be a reflective response that answers all questions, is adequately detailed, and cites outside sources when necessary to support your post. Typically, a post should be at least 250 words to allows you to answer

ANSWER

Resilience

Resilience is the counterbalancing of the positive and the negative things that happen to a child in their life. Resilience is the child’s ability to be influenced by positive things, thus resulting in a positive human experience. The fulcrum helps one understand the balance between positive and negative outcomes. The scale can either be moving toward the negative or the positive side. The influences in a child’s environment determine whether the fulcrum will tilt to the negative or to the positive side (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2015). The fulcrum helps us understand resilience as it shows how children can be able to overcome the negative outcomes in their lives and move toward the positive. The support of the family and how the child takes the negative events that happened to them determine whether they will lean more to the positive or the negative side of the fulcrum.

Children need support after facing trauma. This means that communities should have support programs for children who have been through trauma. These support centers will help the children cope with their trauma and build resilience (Levine & Kline, 2006). Other resources that communities need include goo schools with supportive teachers, resources for children to play and build a childhood, and services that ensure children are not trapped in traumatic situations. In my community, I would start youth programs for children at a young age where they learn outside of the classroom. I would create programs where they meet their peers and interact. Share stories of success and adversity in their lives and the lessons they learned. This will help them understand that being faced with traumatic events is not the end of life, and some positive outcomes can always come out of it.

References

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2015). In Brief: The science of Resilience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r8hj72bfGo

Levine, P. A., & Kline, M. (2006). Trauma through a child’s eyes: Awakening the ordinary miracle of healing. North Atlantic Books.