Finding Your Superpower: A Resilience Exercise for Kids 2026

Finding your superpower is a resilience exercise that helps children and adults name the specific strength they draw on when life gets hard. It comes from the narrative practices approach, where a superpower is more than a quality or a skill: it is a force you can mobilize to face difficulties or to bring enthusiasm to what you do.

Everyone has at least one. The work is to notice it, give it a name of your own, and treat it as an ally you can call on again.

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Quick takeaways

• A superpower is a specific strength you can mobilize, not just a compliment.
• Review the challenges you overcame and how you did it.
• Name the strategy with your own word, motto or compound phrase.
• Question a chosen quality deeply: its story, values and effects.
• With children, keep questions light and let them name the power.
• Remind the child of the superpower when you see it in action.

Why a superpower is more than a compliment

A superpower is a talent that expresses a person's singularity. It sits close to the idea of a strength, something that can be summoned in daily life rather than a label pinned on a child. Calling a quality a superpower changes how it feels: it becomes personal, memorable and usable.

This matters for resilience. When children learn to see their own way of coping as a power rather than a coincidence, they can reuse it. The same holds for adults, who often forget the strategies they invented along the way.

Reviewing your history to find the strength

The exercise starts by looking back at the challenges and even the traumas you have met and overcome, of any kind: professional, romantic, family or medical. Then ask how you got through them, what you put in place, even instinctively and without really being aware of it, to make the situation more acceptable.

Go further with concrete questions. What did you actually do? What helped you get past the difficulty and be here today as you are? What, and who, could you count on? Which qualities and skills did that lead you to develop? And what do those qualities say about your values and what you hold precious? Looking back can also help you plan ahead, much like homemade family plans that draw on past experience.

Naming the strategy

Answering these questions shows that everyone has known difficulties and built their own strategies to face them. Those strategies can serve in other hard situations and consolidate resilience, just as knowing which contraceptives after childbirth suit you draws on what you have learned before. Becoming aware of them and naming them makes them exist as a superpower: a word, an expression, a compound word or a motto that captures this particular force.

Turning your greatest quality into a superpower

You can also start from one quality you recognize in yourself, but you need to question it deeply. Where does this quality come from in me? What is its story? Where did it first show up, and where did it last? How do I recognize it when it is in action?

Then explore it with key questions. What is this quality for me, and how would I define it precisely? How does it express itself? Which other qualities are needed to show it to this degree? What values underlie it, and what matters to me when I put it into practice? Much like the patience found in teleworking with children, some qualities reveal themselves most clearly in daily life.

Giving it a name of your own

Ask what this quality says about you and what carries you, what it allows you, and what it allows others. How did you acquire it, and who do you hold it from? Finally, name it with an adjective, a compound word or a periphrasis that characterizes it as closely to you as possible. That name makes the quality yours alone, lets you embody it and turns it into a life ally, just as shared snow games can turn a simple moment into a lasting memory.

Doing the exercise with children

With a child, keep the questions light and concrete. Instead of asking about trauma, ask about a time things were hard, like a move, a lost toy or a difficult day at school, and what the child did to feel better. Listen for the small moves: asking for help, drawing, building, telling a story.

Reflect the strength back and let the child name it. A made-up word or a motto works beautifully, and it belongs to the child. You can anchor the name in everyday moments, such as noticing it during play with toddler toys or while stacking blocks in making towers. Everyday care routines count too, so try teaching your child to brush their teeth and praise their persistence. Small moments of courage also show up in stories like never being ashamed of a parent.

Keeping the superpower alive day to day

A named superpower needs reminders. Mention it when you see it in action, and let the child hear you use your own name for yours. This is how parents become the mirror children reflect themselves in, as a pediatrician reminds us. Small rituals help: a drawing of the superpower, a phrase at dinner, a note in the room.

Adults can do the same. When you turn back toward your goals, you feel better equipped and less alone to go after them. As the exercise's author puts it, the magic is to reverse things: make the challenge ordinary and the quality exceptional.

Common questions and gentle pitfalls

Two things can go wrong. First, turning the exercise into a performance, where the child feels tested. Keep it conversational and let silence do its work. Second, skipping the history: a quality named without its story stays abstract.

Resilience is not about pretending difficulties are small. It is about recognizing the resources already there. For families navigating bigger challenges, such as illness, stories of how bricks helped one child show how play and strength can meet. And if a child is struggling with something serious, seek professional support rather than relying on an exercise alone.

My hands-on take

I have used this exercise at home more as a slow conversation than a formal activity. After a hard week, I asked my child what helped when things felt wobbly, and the answer was surprisingly specific: building something until it stood up. We gave it a name together, and now that name comes up whenever a task feels too big.

What surprised me was how much it changed my own view. Naming my own way of coping, which I had never thought of as a strength, made me feel less alone facing the next challenge. I keep the names somewhere visible, and we add to them as we notice new ones.

Frequently asked questions

Is this exercise suitable for young children?

Yes, with adaptation. Replace questions about trauma with questions about a difficult day or moment, and focus on what the child did to cope. Let the child invent the name.

How long does it take?

There is no set duration. A first conversation can be short, and the naming often comes later. The point is to return to it over time rather than complete it in one sitting.

Can it replace therapy?

No. It is a reflective exercise that supports resilience. If a child or adult is facing significant distress, it should complement, not replace, professional support.

What if we cannot find a superpower?

Start from a single quality you recognize, even a small one, and explore its story. Everyone has at least one strength; it sometimes just needs a patient look.