Helping Children With Life Changes

As the saying goes, if you do the same thing over and over again, you get the same result. If the same result is not what we want to happen, then change is needed. However, change does not happen overnight and so helping children with life changes is important as once they start to make life changes, they need to be patient as it can take time to see results. The response to change is not always down to the individual but to another person or outside influence.

THE PROCESS OF HELPING CHILDREN WITH LIFE CHANGES 

There is always a process involved in making changes and something that sparks the wish to change. That can be triggered by a thought or a change of action. Once sparked, children need to be aware that change is a gradual process.

• They cannot expect a situation to be better right away or to feel happier tomorrow.
• They need to be able to work at that thing they want to change and really pay attention to the small shifts that are happening. The small shifts all add up to big changes over the months.
• Depending on the child, the small shift may be being kinder to a friend or being brave enough to put their hand up in a lesson. It may be that they throw a negative thought out of their head and turned it into a positive one. Change is personal.
• If your child is trying to change something about their life, get them to take notes of the changes they are feeling or seeing at the end of the day.

These tips will encourage children to continue with life changes and to see that the process is worth pursuing. Like adults, children need to learn this lesson for themselves and see that they DO have the power to change part of their life, or reactions to situations, that they are unhappy with. Helping children with life changes will set them up for when they have flown the nest and they are on their own. If you after after more ideas of how to help your child with big life changes see this article.

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