Personal & Social Development Self-Regulation & Resilienceusually ages 7–9

Positive Self-Talk

Use positive self-talk to manage difficult situations — replacing unhelpful thoughts like 'I'm stupid' or 'I'll never be able to do this' with encouraging ones like 'This is hard but I can keep trying' or 'I've done hard things before'

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

Give an example of an unhelpful thought and rephrase it as a helpful one
Use positive self-talk aloud or in writing when facing a challenge
Explain how the words we say to ourselves affect how we feel and perform

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Try this together

When your child is struggling with homework and starts saying 'I'm rubbish at this', can they catch that thought and replace it with something more helpful like 'I just need to try a different approach'?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on

Simple Calming Strategiesages 5–7Positive self-talk builds on basic calming strategies

Vocabulary: resilience and selfages 7–10Positive self-talk practice requires knowing the term 'self-talk' and distinguishing it from intrusive negative thoughts

Emotion Vocabularyages 7–9Self-talk benefits from wider emotion vocabulary to name what you're feeling

Growth Mindsetages 7–9Self-talk benefits from growth mindset framing

Positive Self-Talkthis skill · ages 7–9

Unlocks

Assertive Communicationages 9–11Assertive communication benefits from positive self-talk skills

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Candidate matches to official curriculum codes — machine-suggested, unreviewed (v0.1).

Show candidate curriculum codes · 2 NSW

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

This skill sits outside the F–6 Australian Curriculum — no candidate code matched (v0.1).

NSW syllabus codes & stages only

PH1-SMI-01low confidencePDHPE K-6 · Stage 1

PH2-SMI-01low confidencePDHPE K-6 · Stage 2

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

Breaking Tasks into Stepsages 7–9 Choosing the Right Coping Strategyages 7–9 Growth Mindsetages 7–9 Vocabulary: resilience and selfages 7–10

All Self-Regulation & Resilience skills →