Small Kids and Big Challenges

Abstract

Many young children are being exposed to daily hassles or to major stressors, which might influence their sense of security and well-being. This, in turn, might lower their level of resilience, as would be evident already at the time of elementary school entrance. Currently, most interventions to promote young children’s resilience target parents only. The utility of leaving the children “aside” should be seriously questioned, both in terms of parents’ collaboration with such programs, as well as their proper implementation of its instructions. This is due to their being seriously occupied with other problems, such as the daily stresses of living, taking care of other family members’ problems, and so forth. In a trial to promote 4-year-old kindergarten children resilience, mentors of “The A.R.Y.A. Project” (Advancement of Resilience at a Young Age) indirectly teach children ways of coping by engaging them in activities related to animals’ stress and coping. The major goal of the project is to foster in the children a feeling of “never give-up.”