Children who learn to cope effectively with stress are better prepared to overcome life's challenges
-Kenneth R. Ginsburg
What is Children's Literature?
“Books provide a safe medium for children to explore different concepts, feelings, and attitudes while allowing them to better understand their environment, community, and societal expectations” (Goddard, 2011, p.57). Literature comes in many shapes, sizes, reading levels, and topics, and can engage readers, present complex ideas, help readers visualize events, and teach valuable lessons. Great, quality literature has the power to stimulate children’s thinking and promote understanding in addition to providing pleasure for young children. (Mcculliss, D. d., & Chamberlain, D., 2013, p.29). Research has proven that literacy activities have extremely positive effects on students’ comprehension skills, vocabulary knowledge, spelling, writing ability, and overall academic achievement (Miller, 2009, p.51). The great thing about literature is that everybody can benefit from it, not just children. Books address the academic and emotional needs of youth and adolescents through poetry, graphic novels, and Internet-based video games and user-guides (Mcculliss, D. d., & Chamberlain, D., 2013, p.29).
What is Social-Emotional Health?
Grief, depression, stress, and self-esteem are all areas that contribute to a person’s social and emotional health. When children experience grief they go through a mixture of emotions in response to something simple, such as losing their favorite toy or getting a bad grade. Children’s grief is often complicated by their innocence, vulnerability, and lack of mature coping skills (Heath, M. m., Leavy, D., Hansen, K., Ryan, K., Lawrence, L., & Sonntag, A. G., 2008, pg. 259). Grief, loss, and death cause emotional distress and psychological trauma that often leads to depression and anxiety (Goddard, A. T., 2011, p.57). “If over time, children are not compassionately companioned through their complicated mourning journeys, they are at risk for behavioral and emotional problems”(Heath, M. m., Leavy, D., Hansen, K., Ryan, K., Lawrence, L., & Sonntag, A. G.,2008, pg. 263). When children do not have emotional support, their self-esteem then becomes compromised and they begin to lack confidence. Children must have a healthy self-concept to achieve maximum learning. Research has proven that the once 80% of kindergarten students who were classified as having a healthy self-esteem drops to a staggering 20% when a student reaches fifth grade due to stress, inability to make friendships, and other factors such as gender, culture, society expectations, and availability of support (Wadsworth, N.,2007,p.8). For that reason, children must be taught how to cope with life’s challenges in order to maintain healthy, positive relationships with themselves and to develop academically, emotionally, and socially healthy.
Using Children's Literature to help Children's Social and Emotional Health:
Children’s literature is a powerful tool that can significantly help in aiding children when coping with their social and emotional skills. Reading is a way to find friends who have the same problems we do and who can give advice on solving these problems (Miller, 2009, p. 151). When children explore tender topics such as death and depression, they will become aware that they are not the only ones who go through hard times. “Children, through reading, realize that others share their plight . . . their feelings are within the range of normality…When children feel less isolated, they lose some of their embarrassment about their situation” (Mcculliss, D. d., & Chamberlain, D., 2013, p. 17). More specifically, a story can provide children with clear explanations about death, opening lines of communication and providing a safe, nonthreatening atmosphere in which they safely explore and express grief” (Heath, M. m., Leavy, D., Hansen, K., Ryan, K., Lawrence, L., & Sonntag, A. G.,2008, p. 263). Reading to children increases self-esteem, gives comfort, and may aid children in coping with difficult situations” (Goddard, A. T., 2011, p. 57). The content and discussion of a book at every stage is vital in improving self-esteem, changing behavior, and alleviating stress (Sridhar, D., & Vaughn, S., 2000, p. 82). With this information provided, what are we waiting for? Lets build stong children and help them recover from their struggles through the powerful act of reading great literature.
Sources used for my informational essay:
Goddard, A. T. (2011). Children’s books for use in bibliotherapy. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 25(1), 57-61. doi:10.1016/j.pedhc.2010.08.006
Heath, M. m., Leavy, D., Hansen, K., Ryan, K., Lawrence, L., & Sonntag, A. G. (2008). Coping With Grief: Guidelines and resources for assisting children. Intervention In School & Clinic, 43(5), 259-269.
Mcculliss, D. d., & Chamberlain, D. (2013). Bibliotherapy for youth and adolescents - school-based application and research. Journal of Poetry Therapy, 26(1), 13-40. doi:10.1080/08893675.2013.764052
Miller, D. (2009). The book whisperer. San Francisco, California: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Sridhar, D., & Vaughn, S. (2000). Bibliotherapy for all. Teaching Exceptional Children, 33(2), 74-82.
Wadsworth, N. (2007). Bibliotherapy in literature circles: Addressing Self-Esteem Through The Use of Bibliotherapy in Literature Circles, 1-144.