Hooper - What Children Need to Be Happy, Confident and Successful: Step by Step Positive Psychology to Help Children Flourish

What Children Need to Be
Happy,
Confident and
Successful

Jeni Hooper

What Children Need to Be
Happy,
Confident and
Successful

Step by Step Positive Psychology to
Help Children Flourish

Jessica Kingsley Publishers
London and Philadelphia

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First published in 2012

by Jessica Kingsley Publishers

116 Pentonville Road

London N1 9JB, UK

and

400 Market Street, Suite 400

Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA

www.jkp.com

Copyright Jeni Hooper 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owners written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Hooper, Jeni (Jenifer Susan), 1952

What children need to be happy, confident and successful : step by step

positive psychology to help children flourish / Jeni Hooper.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-84905-239-9 (alk. paper)

1. Child psychology. 2. Positive psychology. 3. Child mental health. 4.

Child development. 5. Well-being. I. Title.

BF721.H62 2012

649'.6--dc23

2011042876

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84905 239 9

eISBN 978 0 85700 483 3

Preface

HELPING CHILDREN TO FLOURISH

Do you want to ensure a child has a good life? Then you need to know about the factors which make a big impact on the quality of a childs life both now and in the future.

What makes children happy, confident and successful? Is it high intelligence? Is it having a stress-free and comfortable life? Perhaps it is the school you attend or the neighbourhood you live in? All these factors do count, of course, but they are not what makes the real and lasting difference. These factors are important but they are also hard to change.

The good news is that the real difference is in your hands. That difference is psychological wellbeing. Each and every adult can make a difference to a child and prepare them up for a life which is happy, confident and successful.

Psychological wellbeing is the umbrella term for a set of skills which every child needs to help them live their best life and to keep things on track when life gets tough. Questions about the quality of life have been debated since ancient times. In the past ten years a new branch of psychology has begun to put real evidence behind the philosophy and ideology that was all previous generations had to work with. Psychological wellbeing was previously the territory of self-help books, gurus and pundits. It was a fluffy, feel good subject which was hard to examine for evidence. Positive Psychology has done just that, taking ancient wisdom and examining its credentials and setting up research projects to explore the everyday beliefs we all hold dear. Some things have stood up to the test while others have crumbled.

This book brings together the key findings from Positive Psychology and combines them with essential knowledge from Child Psychology to give you a step by step guide to what every child needs to shape and manage their own lives and flourish.

A QUICK GUIDE TO THE FLOURISHING PROGRAMME

This book introduces the Flourishing Programme, which is designed to help children achieve their personal potential in every area of their lives. Although most children are thriving on the opportunities which life puts their way many others need support. I developed the Flourishing Programme from cutting edge psychological research to take the trial and error out of helping children to find their best life.

Who is it for?

A significant minority of children are not having the childhood they deserve. Increasing numbers of children have mental health issues, with anxiety and depression reaching almost epidemic proportions. Even children who appear to be progressing well can be unhappy with themselves and have low self-confidence.

The programme has been highly effective in improving wellbeing. You do not need to be a psychologist to use this programme and both professionals working with children and parents will find information and practical activities to guide them in nurturing wellbeing.

The target age group for the Flourishing Programme to be most effective is 311-year-olds, because early intervention is undoubtedly preferable to crisis intervention. However, you will find several case studies of adolescents who have benefited from the programme.

Getting started

I recommend you read the book through once to get the complete picture before you start to put ideas into practice.

The First Steps to Flourishing Questionnaire provides an assessment of how well a child is progressing in the five key areas of wellbeing: personal strengths, emotional wellbeing, positive communication, learning strengths and resilience. Each key area is given a chapter, and these are topped and tailed by chapters which explore how to personalize the programme and how to promote independence as children mature.

Each chapter explores what we know about optimal wellbeing in a key area and then describes practical activities which help children to learn and practise skills which help them to be happier, more confident and more successful.