Dr. Leanna McMahon

‘At a recent meeting of the Fredonia Shakespeare Club, Dr. Leanna McMahon presented her paper ‘Resilience In Children’s Literature.”

Resilience is the ability to thrive, or at least to cope reasonably well, even in the face of adversity or in the aftermath of trauma. As negative childhood experiences accumulate the risk of long term impacts grows. This means an increase in the risk of anxiety or depression, addictions, committing crimes or becoming a victim of violence, and even increases in the risk of heart disease and cancer and a decreased life expectancy.

However, there is a great individual variability in people’s ability to overcome the negative impacts of adverse childhood experiences. Some of this variability may be due to genetics, but much of it is environmental and depends on family and community support, available resources, and coping strategies.

Factors related to increased resilience include internal strengths including cognitive skills such as problem solving and critical thinking, a capacity to level, understand and regulate one’s own emotions and to recognize the emotions of others; a belief in one’s ability to act and affect one’s environment; having a positive self-image; maintaining optimism and hope, having the ability to see challenges as opportunities for growth; and having learned effective coping strategies. External factors are also important to resilience and these include access to resources, community support, investment in one’s culture and/or faith, skilled caregivers, and having a strong positive bond with at least one adult.

Children’s literature can have an impact on many of these factors. Reading aloud to children builds and strengthens bonds with parents and other caregivers. Reading can help children understand and appreciate the wider community of which they are a part, helping them feel more connected and less alone.

Children who read for pleasure have an academic advantage. Reading strengthens executive functioning; children who read frequently have better planning and decision making skills than those who do not. Frequent readers develop enhanced problem solving abilities and critical thinking skills. There is also a strong association between the amount of reading a child does and the size of his or her vocabulary. Perhaps most importantly, childhood readers are likely to develop a lifelong love of reading which will ensure they will be lifelong learners.

Reading stories helps children build empathy for others by introducing them to different cultures and to challenging situations others may have to face. Research shows that reading about people different from oneself increases empathy toward members of the culture being read about. Children gain social emotional skills as they come to understand the world around them better and as they read about the successful and unsuccessful relationships of real and fictional characters in books.

Children may gain coping skills by reading about how others deal with difficult life circumstances. Reading reminds us that difficult situations often happen and that they can be overcome. Reading can also help children name and describe their emotions and experiences.

Children may gain a feeling of support and community by reading about people who have something in common with them that those children may not find represented much among their peers or in their community. A child with a particular illness or disability, family issue, immigration issue, sexual identity or orientation issue, or other concern may be able to find books that offer normalization, coping skills, and a sense of community.

When choosing a gift for a child, it may be wise to consider choosing a book or two which can help the child develop resilience, whether by increasing cognitive or emotional skills, learning more about his or her heritage, learning strategies for dealing with difficult life experiences, or simply by delighting in the experience of being read to or reading.