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Why do we need to be able to identify children & young people's coping strategies?
"Once a child's current coping has been assessed, you can choose specific interventions aimed at augmenting the positive coping strategies that a child already possesses, learning and practicing new coping methods when needed and extinguishing maladaptive coping.
(Goodyear-Brown, P. 2010)
As the quote states, once we know children's and young people's coping strategies we can begin to help them in the most appropriate way for them. This is especially the case for children and young people who have experienced trauma. The impact for attempting an intervention without having an understanding of their coping styles may leave them feeling vulnerable and overwhelmed by their emotions.
By assessing their coping strategies, we can identify the strategies that are not proving to be useful to the child's emotional wellbeing. We can then understand some of their behaviours and actions. This will enable us to find ways to positively manage their challenging coping behaviours and hopefully bring about growth and change.
Due to their level of development, children and young people do not have the cognitive development and emotional understanding to analyse whether their coping strategies are useful to their wellbeing. Therefore play and creative based assessments are developmentally appropriate for assessing a child's or young person's coping strategies.
Introduction to BASIC Ph Assessment of Coping Styles
Saturday 14th May 2011
Moulton Conference Centre, Northampton.
£85.00 per person
£50.00 for full time Students
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