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of science, I initially found these more deeply felt questions puzzling, especially as I saw their healthy, robust, thriving sons and daughters. But with more years and experience, I have come to see these parents were asking a much deeper question—how could they, as parents, give their children the best foundation and skills to meet whatever world they would meet? Fundamentally, this is what all of us caring for Lunchbox were trying to do. And this is what has brought me to the study of resilience and to working with Michele on this book. My experiences in the neonatal intensive care nursery with Lunchbox and so many other small babies and their families have stayed with me for the rest of my career. They shape how I think about children’s development, the possibility of recovery, growth, and gain, and especially about those capacities that help all of us face an often-challenging world. I continue to work with children and families but now am in the department of child and adolescent mental health at Yale and the Child Study Center. I came to Yale to do research so that I could better understand how to help the most vulnerable of children like Lunchbox reach their fullest potential. My research engaged families at the birth of their babies and followed them over now two and a half decades. What is clearest to me is we can all make a significant difference in children’s lives by giving a safe, nurturing environment that gives them the chance to learn how to be caring, thoughtful adults themselves. Individual differences abound in how all children develop and those individual differences combine with life’s positive and negative experiences to make us who we are. But along the way, caring teachers, pediatricians, neighbors, parents, and relatives help us learn skills that promote our capacity to meet the inevitable challenges life brings our way. That is the purpose of this book—to help us all learn how to develop resilience-promoting skills among the children in our care.
We all want our children to have a strong, supportive village of caring people in place who will help nurture their capacities to meet life’s adversities head-on. We want them to find opportunities in whatever challenges, hardships, and losses come their way. Our goal in writing this book is to offer the research, tools, and strategies
12 The Educator’s Guide to Building Child & Family Resilience
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