GRIT
Program

Program ​Overview

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The Get GRIT Program...

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• Empowers children with the knowledge and skills to maintain a healthy mind and positive well-being.

• Teaches children how to identify and positively manage emotions.

• Teaches positive coping skills.

• Normalises feelings and reactions to different emotions.

• Builds emotional resilience.

• Encourages children to reflect on their beliefs and thinking about themselves and other people and their resulting behaviours.

• Teaches children to develop a growth mindset and understand the power of their thoughts and how their beliefs influence what they can achieve.

• Encourages children to tackle life’s challenges with a positive attitude and mindset.

• Teaches children to recognize the physiological signs and symptoms of anxiety and how to overcome thinking traps.

• Encourages children to practise gratitude.

• Teaches developmentally appropriate social skills so that children can enjoy healthy and positive relationships.

• Teaches conflict resolution skills.

• Promotes emotional well-being through small group learning.

• Encourages a whole family approach.

• May be adapted to individual counselling/coaching sessions.

• Suitable in health and educational settings.

• Implemented by a trained health or educational professional (teacher, psychologist, counsellor).

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Program Materials

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• Lower Primary Program Module

• Upper Primary Program Module

• Get GRIT's self-guided journal

• Training Modules

• Operations Guide

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What is GRIT?

 

The word grit is often used to describe resilience, perseverance and determination.  The Get GRIT Program aims to develop grit and more. GRIT is an acronym for Getting Along, Building Resilience, Identifying Emotions and Taking Responsibility. 

 

Participants will learn skills to:

 

Get Along

 

• Establish and build positive relationships

• Maintain friendships

• Work collaboratively

• Negotiate and resolve conflict

• Practice kindness

• Be assertive 

 

Build Resilience

 

• Persevere to overcome frustrations

• Bounce back from adversities

• Recognise the importance of their internal dialogue

• Recognise how thoughts influence feelings and behaviour

 

Identify Emotions

 

• Identify and recognise emotions

• Regulate and manage emotional responses

• Strategies to reduce anxiety and manage anger

• Understand others’ emotional states and needs (empathy)

 

Take Responsibility

 

• Develop a growth mindset

• Make positive and responsible decisions

• Develop self-discipline

• Set goals

• Take risks

  

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Getting Along

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Social skills, like any other skill, need to be taught and practised.  Children who enjoy positive, healthy relationships with their peers at school feel more connected and are less likely to be bullied.  Friendships provide critical support for a child’s social and emotional well-being.  Schools are social places and offer a unique social context whereby social skills are developed alongside academic learning.  Learning too is a social process and research has found that students who have well-developed social skills and social awareness experience improved academic outcomes.

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Stages of Social Play

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There are 6 stages of social play.  The first stage begins at birth, where a baby participates in Unoccupied Play, which involves babies making random movements with no clear purpose.  Solitary Play is the second stage which begins in infancy.  Solitary play, like the name suggests, involves children starting to play on their own.  Children may not notice other children sitting or playing nearby. The third stage, Onlooker Play, typically begins during the toddler years. Onlooker Play involves a child observing other children play.  They may attempt to interact, but there is no effort to join in. Parallel Play, typically begins during the toddler years and involves children playing side-by-side, with limited interaction.  They may pay attention to one another, while involved in their own play.  This stage is the foundation for more complex social stages of play.  The fifth stage of play is called Associative Play, which typically occurs around the ages of three to four years.  At this age, children become more interested in interacting with other children.  They may ask questions, talk about toys or have a common purpose such as building a tall tower together.  Social Play is the final stage of play and is where key relationships skills are learned, like cooperating, taking turns and solving problems.   By the time most children begin formal schooling, they are participating in social play. Children’s friendship needs and skills change and develop as they grow.  They will require adult support long after their childhood years. As they get older, their play becomes more complex, but there are key relationship skills required to maintain healthy relationships. 

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These skills include:

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• Co-operation (e.g. sharing, taking turns, following rules of play, winning and losing)

• Communication (e.g. starting conversations, listening actively, apologising to others)

• Understanding and managing feelings (e.g. expressing feelings, asking for what one needs/wants)

• Accepting and including others (e.g. helping others, playing fairly)

• Conflict Resolution skills

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Children who are good at making and maintaining friendships practise these positive social skills.  Children who have difficulties with friendships often display the following behaviours;

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• Physical aggression or playing too rough

• Interrupting and/or talking too much

• Bossy behaviour

• Complaining and whining

• Showing off

• Poor sport when winning or losing a game

• Breaking rules of a game

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Building Resilience

 

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from adversities.  It is the ability to cope when things don’t go to plan and to bounce back from a challenge.  

Resilience is;

• Bouncing back from difficulties 
• Being able to cope with what life throws at you 
• Taking risks and giving things a go 
• Dealing with challenges 
• Being adaptable 
• Being curious

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Resilience is important for a child’s mental health and well-being.  Resilient children are better at managing stress, which is our typical response when we are faced with a challenge or a difficult situation.  All children are capable of being resilient.  Children build resilience through the development of social and emotional skills.  Specifically, by building their independence, by learning how to identify and manage their emotions, by experiencing and overcoming challenging situations, and by building positive and healthy relationships with others.

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Identifying Emotions

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A child’s ability to positively manage their emotions will have a huge impact on their quality of life.  Teaching children how to identify and manage their emotions develops resilience, self-regulation skills and supports positive mental health and well-being. Children who learn how to recognise and manage their emotions are more likely to succeed at school, develop healthy relationships and are also less likely to develop mental health problems.  Teaching children how to recognise and manage their feelings plays an important role in their social and emotional development.  

What is Self-regulation?

Self-regulation is the ability to regulate emotions, behaviours, attention and feelings.  It is the ability to control ourselves.  Children learn to regulate their feelings and behaviours by observing how their parents and carers regulate their own emotions.   Children need adults to help them manage their emotions. As children develop they learn how to self-regulate without the support of a parent or carer.  Children consistently need their own needs met by a responsive and empathetic adult in order for them to develop a positive self-image, to positively manage their emotions and get along with other children.

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Taking Responsibility

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Children can be encouraged to take responsibility for their learning by developing a mindset of growth, learning to be persistent and optimistic.   A growth mindset is the belief that a person’s abilities and intelligence can be developed through practice, hard work, dedication and motivation.  A fixed mindset is the belief that intelligence taken alone will lead to success and that they are fixed and cannot be developed or improved upon.  Changing the way a child perceives their own abilities and potential can drastically improve their performance.  Too often students live in the now rather than the yet and as a result they focus on their limitations rather than their potential.

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Children with a growth mindset are more likely to;

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• Learn from their mistakes

• Be motivated to succeed

• Learn more

• Learn faster

• Put forth more effort

• Take challenges head on

• Take risks

• Seek feedback

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Overview of Program

 

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Emotional Development: Self-Awareness and Self-Management

 

Lesson 1: Identifying and Recognising Emotions

 

• Identify personal qualities

• Appreciate diversity

• Recognise similarities and differences between themselves and others

• Identify emotions in themselves and others

• Recognise the body’s reaction to feelings: body cues

• Understand how and when to assist others (empathy development)

 

Lesson 2: Regulating and Managing Emotional Responses

 

• Recognise the body’s reaction to anger 

• Monitor emotions: Emotional Thermometer

• Identify personal strategies to manage anger (High Five Choices)

• Practise deep breathing, visualization, guided meditation and massage

 

Lesson 3: Internal Dialogue

 

• Distinguish the difference between thoughts and feelings

• Learn the power of their internal dialogue

• Identify I Can Thoughts and I Can’t Thoughts

• Learn how to persevere to overcome frustrations by changing I Can’t thoughts to I Can thoughts

 

Lesson 4: Thoughts, Feelings, Behaviour

 

• Recognise how our thoughts influence our feelings

• Recognise how our feelings influence our behaviour

• Build resilience with mindset

 

Lesson 5: Growth Mindset

 

• Explain difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset

• Explore the power of yet by changing I Can’t thoughts to I Can’t Yet

• Overcome obstacles and frustrations

• I Can’t Yet Goal setting

 

Lesson 6:  Managing Anxiety

 

• Recognise physiological signs and symptoms of anxiety

• Understand how the brain responds to fear and anxiety

• Understand how to recognise and overcome thinking traps

• Three steps to fight worry bullies

 

Social Development: Social-Awareness and Social-Management

 

Lesson 7: Establishing and Building Positive Relationships

 

• Initiating play

• Getting along skills (sharing, turn taking, winning and losing, accepting others, sharing conversation)

• Identify qualities in a friend

 

Lesson 8: Maintaining Friendships and Working Collaboratively

 

• Discuss how to maintain friendships

• Communicate effectively

• Win and lose gracefully

• Recognise the importance of being honest

 

Lesson 9: Negotiating and Resolving Conflict

 

• Identify helpful and unhelpful ways to resolve conflict

• Make positive and responsible decisions

• Identify 5 ways to negotiate and resolve conflict

 

Lesson 10: Responding to Bullying and Bucket Filling

 

• Practise being assertive and how to say ‘no’

• Learn how to respond to bullies and how to speak up

• Practise giving and receiving compliments

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