This 58-page volume provides visual, hands-on tools to help children learn key cognitive-behavioral skills.
This volume, Stress-Busters: CBT-Based Coping Skills, is a follow-up to the first volume of the series, Let’s THINK About Feelings, Emotions, and Stress. The first volume sets the foundation by helping children become more cognizant of their emotional responses and of their of stress level (and whether their stress is healthy stress or unhealthy stress.) The first volume ends on a positive note: children are assured that they can cope with stressful situations and difficult emotions by learning special strategies and skills. In the final activity in the first volume, children are introduced to four categories of CB strategies:
- CHOOSE the best way of thinking. (Includes interventions related to cognitive flexibility, cognitive restructuring)
- STOP doing things that aren’t helpful. (Includes interventions related to response inhibition, recognizing and stopping automatic negative thoughts/behaviors)
- CALM your body. (Includes interventions related to physiological self-monitoring, relaxation,self-calming.)
- Make a good PLAN. (Includes interventions related to problem-solving, planning and collaborating)
The activities included in this volume are:
- Are You a Careful Thinker? The I Can Choose activity introduces the concept of cognitive flexibility, a basic principle of CBT.The goal is to help children understand that, by changing the way that they perceive or think about situations, they can transform their emotional and behavioral reactions.
- Be a Mastermind: Be a Mastermind is an assignment that helps children stop and sort through their reactions when dealing with a stressful situation, with an emphasis on separating facts from thoughts
- Encouraging Words: To help the child prepare for an upcoming stressful or challenging situation, the child formulates “encouraging words” - short, positive statements that they can use to replace automatic anxious, angry and/or upsetting thoughts. The encouraging words are written on postcards that the child can take along to use at the “point of performance.”
- Don’t Do It: It can be difficult to apply the principles of CBT in everyday life because we may habituallyrespond to a given situation with an ingrained, automatic–but unhelpful–response. In order to practice using new thoughts and behaviors, we have to first be aware of, and then inhibit, ourunhelpful, automatic responses. Don’t Do It includes a game that introduces children to the concept of response inhibition and an assignment connecting the concept to their everyday lives.
- Slow Down and Get Calm: In addition to inhibiting one’s automatic and unhelpful thoughts in a stressful situation, it is also important to be aware of one’s physiological responses and to take action to “calm down” once automatic responses are triggered. This activity teaches child-friendly techniques for self-calming.
- What’s The Problem, What’s The Plan? This activity structures the problem-solving process and also provides the child with a written summary of their decision-making to use as a guide and reminder.
- Stay-on-Track Map: A follow up to What’s The Problem, What’s The Plan?, This assignment provides external support to help children better regulate their emotions and behavior in order to do their part in carrying out a plan.
