Making Military Kids Strong
By Adrian Zupp
Childhood is a time of not only physical maturation, but also psychological and emotional development. So it can be difficult for parents and other adults to fully comprehend what military kids go through, considering the variety of stressors they face.
But there are tools available to help. The National Center for Telehealth & Technology (T2) has developed an array of tools to aid the resiliency of military personnel and their families. (Several of these have been discussed previously in this blog.) And they haven’t forgotten the kids.
Also accessible from the T2 website is the Military Kids Connect site (MKC).
MilitaryKidsConnect.org is an award-winning site that focuses on kids, tweens and teens (6 to 17) at all stages of a parent’s or carergiver’s deployment. It’s an online community as well as a resource center.
MKC offers fun games, informative activities, helpful videos and user surveys which aid resilience, reinforce understanding and develop coping skills in military children. Children can even share their thoughts with their peers in monitored online forums, which lets them know that they are not alone in their situation.
Parents should know that Military Kids Connect has been designed to be very safe and so that it is simple for them to control and monitor their child’s access and activities on the site.
Community and family support are crucial to any child going through the “deployment experience.” Military Kids Connect supplements and augments that human contact and adds another dimension of coping skills that have been designed to make a difference.
Adrian Zupp is the marketing and communications writer for Screening for Mental Health, Inc.
