Chapter 1: Shaping Resilience: The Impact of Parental Influence on Child Development

Key Points

• Our development is continually influenced and altered by our experiences
• Past experiences and memories shape how your brain currently fires
• Your brain adapts to all types of emotional memories, preparing you for the future based on what’s happened in the past
• An emotional sporting interaction you have with your child, will automatically influence how they respond to similar future situations without them realizing
• A child that develops the internal story that they can overcome challenges through effort, will tend to persist through life’s obstacles
• Our brains constantly change as we interact with and observe others
• Memory and recollection improve after exercise
• Just prior to puberty, the region of your child’s brain important for both the development of internal stories and the ability to respond flexibly to emotional situations, becomes incredibly open to new connections
• Every interaction with your child changes who they are and can affect who they become