Shifting the Balance

Shifting the Balance
photo by: Kevindooley
By B. Kaiser|J.S. Rasminsky
Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall

In an article in Young Children, Emmy Werner makes these suggestions for teachers, neighbors, coaches, social workers, community workers, police, and others who spend time with children: 

  • Accept children’s temperamental idiosyncracies and allow them experiences that challenge, but do not overwhelm, their coping abilities.
  • Convey to children a sense of responsibility and caring, and in turn reward them for helpfulness and cooperation.
  • Encourage a child to develop a special interest, hobby, or activity that can serve as a source of gratification and self-esteem.
  • Model, by example, a conviction that life makes sense despite the inevitable adversities . . . each of us encounters.
  • Encourage children to reach out beyond their nuclear family to a beloved relative or friend. (Werner, 1984, p. 71)

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