An important lesson for life is teaching children that they can draw on their strengths to overcome challenges. Strengths are the unique qualities, skills, or attributes that individuals possess and excel in. They represent areas of natural talent, competence, or proficiency that contribute positively to a person’s abilities and potential for success. Identifying and understanding one’s strengths can be empowering, allowing individuals to leverage these positive qualities in various aspects of their lives.
A strengths based approach underpins everything we do at Strength Heroes. Unlike traditional education methods that highlight areas of improvement, the strength-based approach focuses on identifying and nurturing a child’s existing strengths. This method, backed by research, reveals that when children operate from their strengths, it enhances their confidence, motivation, and overall well-being.
Strengths Defined
Strengths are the unique qualities, skills, or attributes that individuals possess and excel in. They represent areas of natural talent, competence, or proficiency that contribute positively to a person’s abilities and potential for success. Identifying and understanding one’s strengths can be empowering, allowing individuals to leverage these positive qualities in various aspects of their lives.
Why does Strength Heroes use a strength based approach?
Early on in her career, our founder, Fiona Perrella worked in the corporate arena in organisational development. What she noticed was that the people she coached were not very good at recognizing their strengths. For example, she would start a coaching session asking people to identify what they were good at and what they needed to improve. Overwhelmingly, people found it easier to identify what their weaknesses than their strengths. Fiona recognised that it is so essential for success to be able to embrace your strengths and weaknesses and it has become a pillar of everything we do at Strength Heroes.
To help children use their strengths to be brave, try these five things.
1. Self-Reflection
Encourage children to reflect on their unique strengths and abilities. Help them identify times when they demonstrated courage or resilience. Then help them reflect what strengths they used. By recognizing their strengths, children build confidence in their ability to face challenges.
At Strength Heroes we use the VIA Strengths which is a set of 24 character strengths that were developed by Chris Peterson and Martin Selegman who led a three year research project with a team of over 55 social scientists.
In our kids art classes we use the following strengths of love, zest, kindness, creativity, curiosity, honesty, kindness, perseverance (we call it trying), bravery and humour.
To identify your child’s strengths, think about what they are good at or enjoy doing. What are the qualities that explain their ability and preference. For example, if they are good at reading, maybe one of their strengths is curiosity.
2. Strike a Pose
Standing in a power pose, (or as we call it a Strength Heroes pose) characterised by open and expansive body postures, can have a positive impact on children when they are nervous. This concept is rooted in research on “embodied cognition,” which suggests that our body postures can influence our mental and emotional states. Power poses, like standing tall with hands on hips or stretching arms wide, are associated with increased feelings of confidence and reduced stress hormones. For children, adopting these poses can serve as a simple yet effective strategy to signal to the brain a sense of bravery and self-assurance. By consciously changing their body language, children may experience a shift in their mindset, fostering a greater sense of control and readiness to face challenges, especially when feeling nervous or anxious.
3. Visualisation
In our workshop we often use guided visualisation to imagine themselves successfully overcoming challenges. Visualisation, often rooted in the principles of cognitive psychology, operates on the idea that the brain cannot easily distinguish between a vividly imagined experience and a real one. When individuals engage in visualisation, they activate the same neural pathways that would be used during the actual experience. This process involves the brain’s sensory and motor regions, creating a mental representation that mirrors the physical execution of an activity. The more detailed and immersive the visualization, the more profound the impact on neural activation.
Neuroscientific research indicates that visualisation can lead to the strengthening of neural connections related to specific skills or actions. Regular and focused visualisation has been shown to enhance performance, boost confidence, and contribute to skill development. By mentally rehearsing successful outcomes, individuals are not only priming their minds for success but also refining the coordination between brain and body, essentially pre-programming themselves for improved execution when the envisioned scenario becomes reality.
Ask them to imagine using their strengths to navigate difficult situations. Visualisation can create a mental blueprint for approaching challenges with courage.
Goal Setting
Help children set realistic goals that align with their strengths. Breaking down a challenge into smaller, achievable steps allows them to focus on their capabilities. Celebrate each milestone, reinforcing the connection between their strengths and success.
Role Models and Stories
Share stories or examples of individuals who have faced challenges by using their strengths. Whether fictional characters or real-life heroes, these role models can inspire children and provide insights into how strengths can be harnessed for bravery.
Empowering children to recognise and utilise their strengths fosters resilience and courage, enabling them to navigate challenges with confidence.
Lily the Brave
Lily, a young girl with a vivid imagination, loved telling stories. One day, her school announced a storytelling competition, and Lily was excited to participate. However, she faced a challenge – stage fright. The thought of standing in front of her classmates made her nervous.
Lily decided to tap into her strengths to overcome this obstacle. She realised that her creativity and love for storytelling were her superpowers. Instead of focusing on the fear of speaking in public, Lily channeled her energy into creating an enchanting and captivating story.
During the competition, Lily took the stage, her passion for storytelling shining through. She wove a tale that transported her audience to magical worlds and filled the room with excitement. Lily’s ability to use her creativity and passion not only helped her conquer her stage fright but also won her the storytelling competition.
Lily is fictional but she illustrates how a character, faced with a challenge, identified and utilized her strengths to overcome obstacles and achieve success. Read on for more on developing your child’s strengths.