Building a child’s resilience the Forest School way.
Thinking back to my origin story once again, there were so many times I could have thrown in the towel and given it all up.
But for what? An easier life, perhaps, but my inbuilt resilience and desire to make an impact on children’s lives were certainly factors in preventing me from chucking it all in.
It eventually led me to finding Forest School and we know how that story ends.
Resilience is a really important lifelong skill that is actively developed through Forest School practices, which forms part of the wider intra personal skills focus.
So what exactly is resilience?
It is the ability of an individual to adapt to change or stressful situations successfully, in a healthy and constructive manner. Simply it’s an individuals ability to cope with the ups and downs of life.
This ability is super important right from the beginning of childhood as resilience is a key component of mental wellbeing and ability to solve a presented problem as efficiently as possible.
Resilience is certainly an acquired and adaptive process, which develops from a child’s interaction between risks and defensive elements across different levels of an individual lived experience.
For example falling over or becoming stuck with something would be risk and crying or giving up would be the defensive elements.
It is thought that from repeating these or similar experiences, independently or with support from an adult, children quickly learn adaptive skills and other initiatives that allow them to over come this problem or setback without to much hassle then alter their course and try again.
Simply put, the more resilient a child becomes the less they succumb to stress, as they are equipped to deal with the waves of life’s pressures and this can potentially reduces their chances of from anxiety or other stress related disorders.
Interestingly, enough I spoke at length about childhood anxiety and 5 ways to manage it during a recent Facebook Live Q and A. I’ll be sure to link that in the notes.
Just as a side note here, resilience doesn’t mean that a child is not vulnerable to stress, but has the capacity to cope with the adverse events.
So how is resilience facilitated at forest school?
There are 2 key areas to mention here.
1. The environment itself.
2. The Forest School Leader.
Within this 2nd key area there are two subsections that interlink with one another.
These are
1. The modelling of resilience
2. Facilitation of resilience
Firstly, the environment.
The natural environment is itself a challenge. If it’s not the uneven terrain, its the weather or the countless obstacles. This forces children to improvise, adapt and overcome.
At the same time the stress stimuli presented in the environment of a forest are significantly less hyper sensitised in contrast to those stimuli you might find in a city such as cars, dogs, people, and other such items, lowering the level of stress presented.
Simply the children don’t find the problems they face in the forest half as big to overcome as they do elsewhere and so it creates the perfect training ground.
Additionally at Forest School children’s imaginations are called on during their play as there are no toys but hundreds of loose parts such as sticks.
That in themselves create problems as to how best they can be used, to achieve a child’s desired play focus for that day.
Therefore children will need to work things out , try different strategies, and persist even when things get tough simply , by design. You’re never going to look at a forest in the same way are you?
Secondly, The Forest School Leader.
Now within this 2nd key area there are two subsections that interlink with one another.
These are;
1. The modelling of resilience
2. Facilitation of resilience
Let me explain what I mean by each.
Simply modelling of resilience is where the Forest Leaders acts out coping strategies that help them deal with and solve problems or set backs, during play they have been invited into.
At times the Forest leader may purposefully make mistakes and either ask the children what they could do or show them. The Forest Leaders behaviour and actions are often mirrored by the children throughout sessions, as the Leader is seen as the ‘expert’ in that environment by the child and someone to learn from.
Therefore, by playing alongside a child or group and acting out or questioning how to deal with set backs, provides a purposeful learning opportunity. If questioning is used it’s encouraged to ask them in a learner type way rather than asking it in a way that seeks to find knowledge. That is not the purpose of the exercise.
This opportunity will be remembered and call upon by the child in times when it is needed. How cool is that, right?
Now Facilitation of resilience is simply the support offered by the Forest leader when they are not a part of the play but are approached by the child usually following set back or a problem they are unable to ride the wave of.
The Forest School leader will not solve the problem for that child or even a group but provide helpful input, which may be the modelling of resilience and encourage reflection on what a child did and ask them to think of ways they could alter the outcome.
A key facet of forest school is about encouraging to explore and make decision within their learning through play and certainly not holding their hand through it all. Through experiencing learning first hand the lessons are far more powerful than if the Forest leader were to just instruct them like ‘Ok this is how you do that’.
Control and ownership are what assists resilience and empowers children in huge ways, helping to shape self awareness, self esteem and motivation. Now that is pretty cool, would you agree?
Throughout these strategies at Forest School it is all about meeting the learner where they are at.
Based on indepth knowledge of child development and an understanding of intra personal skills and how to develop them a Forest Leader is capable of judging just the right amount of support for each child through their observations, interactions and by listening to the child.
Be under no illusion this process takes a while to bare fruit, but this is why I love my role because I get to influence and help massive skills in a child’s life that will benefit them far beyond that very day.
Remember you’re just one session away…
Link to Facebook Live Q and A; https://www.facebook.com/563785597125275/videos/708469523260032/
