Searching all content.
Learning how to identify feelings and express them in healthy ways is the foundation of developing social and emotional intelligence. It is never too early to start teaching kids that it is normal to have a wide range of feelings and that all of them are okay. The beautiful books on our list of multicultural children’ books about feelings are a great start!
These 22 children’s books about different kinds of families celebrate the uniqueness of various family situations in a way that is accessible and relatable for young children. Not only will they be able to see themselves in the book if they are a part of a non-traditional family, but they will learn about the variety of families and all the kinds of love that can be shared within a family unit.
People who meditate are happier, healthier, and more successful than those who don’t. The amazing benefits of practicing meditation and mindfulness are available to everyone who has the time to practice these skills. If you have already tried meditation, mindfulness or other positive psychology interventions before, you may have thought it “wasn’t for you” after a couple of tries. But like any skill, mindfulness takes practice. Try it again! Sometimes the only thing standing between our goals and us is a little bit of direction. Hopefully, this article can provide the direction for you to give mindfulness a try either in your own life, your therapy, or your coaching sessions. Let’s dive in! This article contains: -4 Mindfulness Activities for Groups and Group Therapy -6 Fun Mindfulness Interventions, Techniques, and Worksheets for Adults -Introducing Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) -5 Simple Mindfulness Exercises from Dialectical Behavioural Therapy -Mindfulness Techniques for Depression, Anger, Addiction, and Anxiety -A Take-Home Message -References
Keeping a journal can be a positive outlet for many teens and tweens, as it provides them a safe space for them to reflect upon their everyday experiences, thoughts and feelings, and a guided journal that includes age appropriate prompts and thought starters can be a really helpful tool for those on this journey to self-discovery. Inside: The best 25 journals for teens and tweens, hand-picked for you and your growing kids.
Research from Harvard University suggests that children as young as three years old, when exposed to racism and prejudice, tend to embrace and accept it, even though they might not understand the feelings. By age 5, white children are strongly biased towards whiteness. To counter this bias, experts recommend acknowledging and naming race and racism with children as early and as often as possible.Children’s books are one of the most effective and practical tools for initiating these critical conversations; and they can also be used to model what it means to resist and dismantle oppression. Beyond addressing issues of race and racism, this children’s reading list focuses on taking action. It highlights resistance, resilience and activism; and seeks to empower youth to participate in the ongoing movement for racial justice. This list was curated by The Conscious Kid Library and American Indians in Children’s Literature, in partnership with Raising Race Conscious Children.
Developing a sense of independent self is one of the primary tasks of adolescence, but children desire to understand themselves and the world long before they reach their teen years. Self-understanding helps all of us navigate life and build meaningful connections. Without it, we feel lost and alone. The self-awareness exercises below were adapted from the original 26 Questions to Help You Know Yourself Better that Sharon Martin, LCSW wrote for adults. These proved to be so popular, that she was encouraged to create a similar list to help children come to know and understand themselves better.
TLC Foundation for Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors presents 26 Tips for Skin Picking: A to Z, a list of various ways to manage skin picking urges including alternative behaviors, strategies and self-care ideas.
Ann Meehan LPCC, RPT-S explains that while digital is an amazing alternative for still utilizing Sandtray with clients while you are engaging in Tele-Play, it is missing the tactile kinesthetic and sensory element that the sand and miniatures in office brings. Meehan shares three ways for those who are not quite tech savvy or who are also missing the sensory and touch experiences of Sandtray to continue to support clients virtually.
Emotions are tough to figure out even as an adult, and for kids, trying to manage feelings and emotions can be beyond overwhelming at times. Remember when you were young and even a small disappointment was the end of the world and you didn’t quite know how to handle your feelings about it? As adults, we’ve had the chance to develop ways to cope with our emotions, even when they’re intense, but children often need extra help to navigate their feelings and find healthy ways to respond. What are Coping Skills? Coping skills are actions and ways of thinking that can help individuals manage overwhelming emotions and the difficult situations that provoke them. When you see your child struggling to manage frustration, anger, disappointment, fear, sadness, or other big emotions, using effective coping skills can assist them in working through their feelings in constructive ways. This is when arming your child with a small set of preferred coping skills can help them in their attempts to return to a calm state. Enter our Coping Skills for Kids poster and card set!
Use your touch screen to rotate and zoom around 29 interactive structures. Discover how each brain region functions, what happens when it is injured, and how it is involved in mental illness. Each detailed structure comes with information on functions, disorders, brain damage, case studies, and links to modern research. Created by Vivid Apps and AXS Biomedical Animation Studio for the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory DNA Learning Center. 3D Brain was produced for the Genes to Cognition (G2C) Online website funded by the Dana Foundation and Hewlett Foundation.
Four-games-in-One Jenga has attachment, impulse control, social skills, and feelings labels for the four sides of Jenga® blocks, turning one Jenga® game into four different therapeutic games! For children with attachment problems, the Attachment cards provide suggested behaviors/activities that create mutual recognition such as positive eye contact, safe and gentle touches, shared emotions, and cooperation. For impulsive children, the Impulse Control cards provide opportunities to slow down and reflect on the consequences of acting on impulse by giving various scenarios and asking “What might happen?” For children with social problems, the Social Skills cards use strengths-based and cognitive-behavioral questions to help children (1) identify times when they have engaged in specific prosocial behaviors, (2) describe various complex prosocial behaviors and (3) identify the fine lines between appropriate and inappropriate behaviors. For children who need to develop better self-awareness and emotional competence, the Feelings cards ask children to associate an event with a feeling. ADDITIONAL MATERIALS NEEDED Jenga® or a similar kind of block game Glue Scissors
Renee Jain, a GoZen author, explains how Luke Skywalker is a beacon of strength and a guardian of peace and justice not because he always feels happy and good. In fact, like all of us, Luke experiences fear, anger, worry and even moments of hate. And though these emotions can be overwhelming, through his Jedi training, Luke learns to sit with his discomfort. He allows his emotions to surface and pass. In practicing mindfulness, Luke’s emotions are stripped of their designations. Instead of “dark” and “light” or “good” and “bad,” emotions simply become what they were always meant to be: communication tools. If you have an anxious child (and especially if they love Star Wars), try these techniques.
So how can parents get their kids to be more apt to comply? It might sound counterintuitive, but one strategy widely recommended by children's health professionals is to engage your child in short, daily sessions of child-led play.Called "special time," it gives young children a chance to interact with their parents without the stress of having to follow directions — which in turn, strengthens the bond between them. Research has shown that this kind of playtime can be helpful in treating disruptive conduct in children. Read our handy guide below on how to engage in this "special time" parent-child play.
Fists are no longer the most popular weapon of choice for children, especially young children, pre-teens, and teens. A new weapon of choice involves internet access and a smartphone or a computer. Now children have more options if they want to torment, terrorize, harass, and bully each other. This form of bullying is especially damaging because it is non-stop and carried out through the internet and electronics. This means that victims can be bullied any time they turn on their devices—at home, school, work, and even while out with friends and family. The good news is you can help your child fight and win his or her battle with cyberbullying. Here are five signs that your child may be being harassed or terrorized by a cyberbully and ways to help them get rid of the cyberbully.
Being prepared with a strategy for helping children through those times when they are experiencing big or overwhelming emotions such as anger, frustration, jealousy or embarrassment, is one way to help both you and them to work through those emotions more effectively. It’s not about teaching our children that their emotions aren’t important or valid, or that they must be hidden or suppressed, but it is about helping them to find socially acceptable ways to express and deal with their emotions – most importantly, in ways that don’t hurt others. I like the idea of developing a ‘Calm Down Plan’ with your child so that they have a plan to work through when they do feel upset or out of control, and think the following five steps provide a great place to start. Check out the 5 Steps to Managing Big Emotions Printable Poster
The Playful Therapist blog- by Ann Meehan, an LPCC, RPT-S, and EMDR Consultant, provides a FREE download of 5 different therapeutic scavenger hunts! It includes scavenger hunt items and prompting and processing questions as well as a therapist guide. Scavenger hunt topics include mindfulness and grounding, gratitude, nature, emotions, and self esteem. Also included are some pro tips and extra layers of challenges you can add in to make things interesting!
This article which was shared by a member of the BFRB Community includes helpful tips and ideas on how to stop pulling your hair.
If you’ve been following Happily Ever Elephants for a while, you know we are passionate about the notion that all children need to see themselves in the pages of a book. Check out our list of 50 of the Best Multicultural Children’s Picture Books Every child needs to find characters they relate to in stories. They need to see families who look like theirs, children with the same skin color they have, kids who celebrate the same holidays, share the same struggles, and pride themselves on the same achievements. Why? Because children get a confidence boost when they see themselves in the stories they read. Reading multicultural picture books about kids like themselves helps children of all backgrounds recognize and understand they are not “different.” Books provide safe spaces for kids to see children just like them exploring their emotions and navigating their personal circumstances and journeys. It helps children know they are not alone. Perhaps even more importantly, young people need to read books that honor all children in every day situations. A black child should see himself in books about losing his first tooth, getting a new pet or playing hide and seek, not just books about the fight for civil rights. A Jewish child needs to see herself in books about friendship or days spent enjoying moments with grandparents, not just books about the Holocaust. When a character’s skin color or religion or country of origin isn’t made a focal point of a story, it normalizes differences. When multicultural picture books feature characters of different colors, nationalities, and religions as stars, not sidekicks, we help children (and the adults who read to them!) see there is no one “right” or “ideal” way to be.
This article tells the stories of “50 Famously Successful People Who Failed at First.” These people come from all walks of life. But they shared one characteristic in common — the commitment to their own career success. Despite significant setbacks, harsh criticism, and extreme doubts from others, they all persisted to succeed in their dreams.
Life Coach, Annie Huang, explores why many people struggle with the pain of relationship breakup years later and presents some of the most common reasons why you may still be hurting years after your breakup.
