Confidence

Hi five Benji! Benji got a smile award at school today for the improvement in his handwriting. The teacher had spoken to me prior that he wanted to give him an award - because he had earned it. They also wanted to check that it was ok for Spencer not to get one at the same time and I said that it was my preference that they deserved it rather than getting them at the same time.

He was very pleased with himself and has been doing much better since our meeting. One of the follow ups to the meeting was me meeting the school psychologist, which of course I was happy to do. While we talked about a number of things, Benji was our main concern. He has settled down a lot and is getting more attention in the class but we were looking at the root of the problems and how to resolve or at least assist.  His teacher had talked about confidence, but I was concerned that wasn't giving him the skills and the clever psychologist explained that it was not Confidence but Resilience.

Lightbulb moment. Of course it is. I knew it wasn't confidence, but I didn't know what it was. So we talked about some strategies and some I already do, some are new. She was so great in helping me clear out some of my thoughts and reasoning and I hope I can help Benji in the same way. At this stage, he doesn't need formal meetings and we will keep in touch to monitor progress but I did come home and make a suggested purchase. She recommended the Happiness Trap book which is not purely about resilience, but has a whole lot of strategies to help generally deal with life. Will let you know when it arrives!