Helping Your Child Build a Coping Skills Toolbox

Coping skills are great tools for kids to have when the stresses and strains of life threaten to slow them down or overwhelm them. But just as no single tool is right for every home improvement project, no single coping skill will be right for every situation your child will experience. That's why it's important to help your child continually develop a variety of coping skills, a whole toolbox he or she can go to when the need arises.

Teaching Kids to Use Coping Skills Effectively

Developing coping skills is only the first step. It takes hard work and practice for children to be able to select a helpful skill, learn how to use it properly and complete the task efficiently. As a parent, the more you know about coping skills, the more you will be able to provide support and “be on the same page" with your kids when they face challenges. The following tips can help you help your child build and successfully use a well-stocked coping skills toolbox:

Coping skills help us get through tough moments or situations and prevent us from engaging in behavior that may make the situation worse.
Patience is the key to using skills successfully.
Coping skills are not a “one size fits all."
Your child's coping skills won't be effective 100% of the time.
Coping skills don't make everything better.

With time, effort and practice, it is only a matter of time before your child will build a toolbox full of effective coping skills and learn how to use them to deal with many different, difficult situations.

For a printable list of common coping skills for children of all ages, visit Coping Skills on boystown.org.