| Children who live with failure experience negative | | | | give up in their belief in their goals. When they |
| feelings such as shame, isolation, and anger. These | | | | encounter setbacks, they reevaluate, making |
| students need guidance to develop personal skills that | | | | adjustments if necessary, rather than continuing on a |
| support their success. According to research | | | | non-productive course of action. |
| conducted by the Frostig Center in Pasadena, six | | | | Goal settingPeople who are successful have learned |
| personal attributes form the core characteristics that | | | | how to set long-term goals. They also have developed |
| contribute to success for special needs students. | | | | the capacity to break the long-term goal into bite-size |
| Successful individuals do not necessarily have all six of | | | | pieces that represent actions they can take to achieve |
| these qualities. These attributes are: | | | | their goal. They are flexible, being open to unexpected |
| Self-awareness and self-acceptanceIndividuals who | | | | opportunities, yet they don't lose site of their overall |
| understand their strengths and limitations, who realize | | | | goal. |
| that they have many talents, and who do not define | | | | Use of effective support systemsBoth successful and |
| themselves in terms of their weaknesses, are more | | | | unsuccessful individuals have support systems; |
| resilient to life's challenges than those who see | | | | however, the successful individuals learn to set realistic, |
| themselves as overall failures. | | | | achievable goals. They learn to seek support when |
| ProactivityEngaging in a variety of activities and | | | | they need it, rather than waiting passively for help to |
| interacting with different types of people encourages | | | | be offered. |
| individuals to understand the power they have to | | | | Strong emotional coping strategiesThose who develop |
| create their own lives. Proactive (as opposed to | | | | ways to reduce stress, feelings of failure, isolation, and |
| reactive) individuals believe in their capacity to achieve. | | | | the desire to quit, find the internal resources to persist |
| They look for opportunities to grow. They do not | | | | until they succeed. Successful individuals have learned |
| blame others for their problems; instead they take | | | | to identify situations that can trigger negative reactions, |
| responsibility for their own part in their situation and | | | | they can monitor their internal reactions to sense when |
| realize they can change their circumstances with their | | | | negative reactions are present, and they have a set of |
| own actions. | | | | strategies to reduce these negative reactions so they |
| PerseveranceSuccessful people see their setbacks or | | | | can keep on track. |
| failures as temporary, not as life-defining. They don't | | | | |