Resilience and the Child with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

The mindset of both teachers and students plays a significant role in how successfully students learn and thrive in schools. Mindsets are defined as the assumptions and expectations we possess about ourselves and others that determine our behaviors. This chapter identifies the components of a resilient mindset and describes the seven instincts that fall under the concept of tenacity. The input of the teacher as a “charismatic adult” for students, as an essential source for their intrinsic motivation, resilience, and social-emotional development, is highlighted. A foundation for an effective classroom environment that enriches the “whole” student is the presence of positive emotions. Such emotions encourage the emergence and maintenance of personal control, self-discipline, intrinsic motivation, responsibility, caring, and resilience. Deci and Ryan’s framework for intrinsic motivation, “self-determination theory,” and its focus on the importance of meeting four basic needs—belonging and connectedness; self-determination and autonomy; competence; and meaning and purpose—are described together with specific strategies to reinforce these needs in all students.