SnapBack

SnapBack

Introduction

The SnapBack resilience programme is designed to build emotional resilience and problem-solving abilities in young people. Adolescence is a time of change and offers many new challenges such as higher study loads, peer pressure, friendship difficulties as well as physical development. This can be a stressful and difficult time for many adolescents but ‘SnapBack’ aims to arm its participants with positive coping skills and resilience to help get through these situations and more easily transition to secondary school life.

Students participate in the programme in Year 7 facilitated by their tutors.  A copy of the workbook which each student receives in year 7 is at the bottom of this page.

You as parents and caregivers play a vital role in the development and maintenance of the skills taught in the SnapBack resilience programme. Each session your child will be introduced to specific skills to help build their resiliency. By reinforcing these skills in the home environment we hope that your child will develop the skills shared.

The SnapBack resilience programme has been produced by ‘Young People’s Health Link Workers’ from the School Health Team at Your Healthcare.

The SnapBack resilience programme consists of 5 key areas .

Basics

• In order for young people to feel more resilient, basic structures need to be put in place.

•  If these basic structures are in place then young people will feel a greater sense of security and peace of mind and can better deal with the challenges of life.

• Included in ‘Basics’ is getting to know yourself and your peers, safety at home, school, online and out and about.

• Tips for Parents/Caregiver

• Sit down with your son/daughter and begin discussing individual and family goals that can be achieved over the coming weeks.

• Make the goals specific and positive in nature (e.g. to keep my room tidy each day, to use friendly words when talking to my brothers and/or sisters, to complete my homework each night)

• Focus on positively reinforcing all brave behaviour. Catch your child being brave (e.g. doing something new for the first time).

• Encourage your child to talk about the things that upset them including any fears or worries.

• Share some of your own childhood worries and fears. This will help your child to understand that feeling anxious and worried is normal and that your child will learn new skills in managing their worries in the coming weeks.

Belonging

• Belonging is an important aspect of resilience-building. Positive relationships and acceptance help foster a good sense of self and identity.

• It is important that young people have somewhere they feel they belong (clubs, activities and favourite places in school) and that they meet people who are good influences, who can help them make sense of where they have come from and their place in the world.

Tips for Parents/Caregiver

• Identify the people whom you look up to in your life both now or in the past. Identify the strengths of these people and discuss with your child the ways in which these people have impacted your life.

• Have a family discussion as to the sources of supports available to you. For example, family, friends, community leaders, teachers, family GP, dance teacher etc. Help your child to recognise when to seek help and the people they can talk to when they go through good and bad times. Knowing that there are people available to who care is a protective factor in children lives.

Core self

• Core self focuses on the importance of the young person understanding who they are and their own personal strengths.

• Encouraging young people to be empathetic and sensitive to others will raise awareness of how their behaviour can impact others.

Tips for Parents/Caregiver

• Try to verbalise what you think your child is feeling. For example, if you notice that your child looks happy, let them know this. You could say something like “you look very happy today. I can tell because you are smiling and have laughed lots, this shows me that you are happy”. Or, “I can see that you are angry as your face and fists are scrunched up and you are raising your voice, this shows me that you are angry”.

• Validating your child’s feelings before problem solving is a way of letting your child know that you understand how they are feeling. For example, if your child is angry you could say something like “I can see that you are angry and don’t want to do your homework, however; you need to make a good choice now and find a way to manage your anger. It is ok to be angry, but it is not ok to hit people when you are angry”.

• It is important that children be able to recognise and label their feelings and the feelings of others. This helps to build empathy for self and others. Discussing what emotions you see your child displaying will create understanding. Talking about feelings helps to communicate to children that all feelings are ok, however; it is what we choose to do with our feelings that count.

• Identify and discuss the strengths of each family member. Becoming aware of strength will enhance and boost individual and family esteem. Use lots of descriptive praise to validate your child’s strengths. For example, I really like it when you hug your sister when she is upset, being caring is one of your strengths.

• Share with your child some of your own strengths. This will help children to understand their own and others strengths. This also helps to build children’s self-esteem.

• Encourage your child to verbalise what is happening inside of their bodies when they experience a variety of emotions. For example, when we are worried we can experience butterflies in our tummy or get a tight feeling in our throat, or we may need to go to the toilet often. Let our child know that these symptoms are your bodies way of telling you how you are feeling.

• It is important that as soon as children are aware of their body clues they need to do something about this. Engaging in relaxation strategies helps to reduce these feelings and to remain in control.

Learning

• Helping young people to develop talents, interests and life skills, encouraging them to learn how to cope, how to express their emotions, understand boundaries and have aspirations, are crucial parts of helping them become more resilient.

• Helping your child set life plans, visions and getting organised allows them to develop new skills that are an essential part of them increasing their learning.

Tips for Parents/Caregiver

• Try to focus on the solution to problems and not the problem itself. The more you can take the emphasis off the problem and redirect the focus on the outcome, the more confident you will become in knowing you can come through the other side and learn to manage situations.

• Try to help your child focus on their effort in giving things a go and not necessarily the outcome of their efforts.

• An important feat in life is to be able to cope when things don’t go the way we envisioned.  Children can learn to feel confident in being able to face their fears and to keep going when things don’t go their way.  We as adults can teach children that no matter what they are faced with, they have the power to CHOOSE their thoughts. Children can learn to turn unhelpful thoughts which may try and stop them from reaching their goals, into more positive powerful thoughts that lead to positive actions.

• Help your child to focus on what they can do well. This is likely to increase their willingness to give new things a go or to continue facing things they find difficult.

• Discuss with your child ways that they can feel good about themselves when they have done their best, despite things not going the way they planned. For example, if your child does something new or faces a fear, they could say to them self “I am a winner because I tried my best and I know what to do next time”. They could also work towards tangible rewards for their efforts such as quality time with the family, an activity they enjoy, a trip to a theme park or a special dessert.

Coping

• Coping helps the young person build up a particular set of skills to help them with the challenges of everyday life.

• Encouraging the young person to cope helps them develop an ability to solve problems, to stand up for their own views and beliefs, foster interests and make themselves feel better.

Tips for Parents/Caregiver

• Try to incorporate the SnapBack language into everyday life. For example continue to discuss feelings and our body clues when feeling nervous, happy, excited or sad.

• Discuss situations where a coping step plan or the 6-block problem solving plan may be useful (e.g., going on school camp, sitting an exam, not being invited to a party, fighting over computer time at home).

• Continue to help your child generate personal ways to reward themselves for their efforts.

• Practice having quiet time each day. Practice deep breathing. Teach your child to breathe in through their nose and out through their mouth to help control their anxiety symptoms.

• Relaxation techniques have an immediate impact on our physiology.  Deep breathing is used to decrease our heart rate and release tension in our body.  Being calm also helps us to think clearly in an anxiety provoking or difficult situation.

• Try to see that your body language matches what you are saying to your child.  Children can often feel confused by the messages from those around them, and therefore they become confused as how to respond and act in different situations. Try to be clear, firm and fair in your approach. Remember that children look to you for how to respond in situations and will model your responses. When your body language matches your emotions it minimises the likelihood of any miscommunication occurring.

• Encourage your child to focus on the positives of situations and not the negatives.

• Remember that we all have unhelpful thoughts and sometimes they occur without our knowing. The SnapBack Resilience Programme teaches children to become aware of their self-talk and provides the skills to be able to turn negative thoughts into positive and powerful thoughts.

• The more we listen to unhelpful thoughts the more we believe them and act upon them. It is important to help your child practice bossing back unhelpful thoughts such as “I cannot do it” and replacing them with more positive thoughts such as “I know it is hard, but I can have a go and try my best”.

• Thinking in positive and helpful ways is skill that requires continual practice and reinforcement. When you notice negative thinking in yourself or your child, take a moment to stop, ask yourself is that thought helpful?, if it is not try turning that thought around to find a more positive way of viewing the situation.

• It has been demonstrated that from an early age children can learn to choose how they think, feel and act. However, it is one thing to know this but another to be able to put this skill into practice.

• For children to develop the ability to see life through a ‘positive’ lens, and to see the glass a ‘half-full’ they need to practice bossing back unhelpful thoughts on a daily basis until this skill becomes a natural part of their thinking.  Changing your thinking processes can be uncomfortable to being with but it can make a huge difference in our ability to cope if we can learn to look for the positives in a situation and to not focus on the negatives.

• Children model what they see and hear around them. If you recognise that you are saying unhelpful words or feeling tense or nervous then let your child know that you are aware of this. From there demonstrate coming up with an alternative positive way of looking at your situation. For example, if you are getting stressed about being late for work instead of saying “Now I am late for work, traffic will be bad and I bet I will get all the red lights!” you could say “It is going to be ok, maybe the traffic won’t be as bad as I am thinking, and at least I get to listen to the radio as I drive to work”.

• The more you and your child practice the skill of recognising your feelings, and challenging unhelpful thoughts, the more control you and your child will have over your behaviour and choices. This will boost everyone’s confidence in being able to face the ups and downs of life.

• Continue to share your thoughts and feelings with your child and acknowledge their emotions. Let them know the things you struggled with when you were their age. Help them see that things can be turned around and that we can all learn to overcome our difficulties by CHOOSING to think positively.

Parent Tips for after the programme

• Help your child to identify future challenges (e.g., beginning a new school) and to set realistic goals for now and the future (e.g., learning to swim or attend school camp next)

• Keep practicing the SnapBack skills each day to help your child manage current and future challenges.

• Daily practice of the SnapBack skills will help maintain positive changes. However, setbacks may occur from time-to-time, this is to be expected. Don’t despair! The SnapBack skills are skills to be used in real-life situations both now and for the rest of your lives.

• Have fun using the SnapBack skills as part of your everyday life. ☺

• Remember that learning new ways of coping takes time and practice.

• Remember that all feelings are ok! It is ok to be scared, angry, worried, sad and confused. However, it is how we choose to deal with our feelings that matter.

• Take a TEAM approach to managing difficult situations. Don’t go it alone! Together Everyone Achieves More. Work through problem situations as a family.

• Encourage your child to refer the manual to maintain the skills learnt.

• Take care of yourselves! Smile and stay CALM for Life! ☺

For more info on the Resilience Framework visit – www.boingboing.org.uk