Health and Wellbeing
Using Stories to Support Anxiety – Ideas for Working with Children Aged 3 to 11
A picture book lets an anxious child see someone else feel the same way, and try a new way of coping from a safe distance.
- 41 minutes
- Recorded webinar
- 0.5 CPD hours
- Certificate
Members
14 days free, then £70 a year or £7 a month.
Have a join code from your school?
Already have an account? Sign in
What you'll learn
- Choose a picture book that fits the worry a child is facing
- Use Hey Warrior to explain what anxiety does in the body
- Make worry dolls with children and help them practise handing worries over
- Help a child talk back to anxious 'what if' thoughts through a story
- Create an invisible string keepsake for a child who struggles with separation
About this course
Ask an anxious child what's wrong and you'll often get a shrug. Read them a story about a character who feels the same and you'll get further, because the spotlight is off them and the author has found the words they couldn't.
This session picks six picture books, each chosen for a different job, from calming a racing body to coping with time apart from a parent. Every book comes with something to do. Silly Billy leads into making worry dolls that children can hand their worries to at bedtime. The Invisible String becomes a length of elastic with a paper heart at each end, one for the child and one for mum or dad, to keep in a pocket.
The ideas come from a former primary teacher and SENCO who now works with bereaved and anxious children, and they suit a whole class, a small group or one child.
- For early career teachers, mental health leads and 5 other roles. Early years, primary, secondary and special.
Recording
- 41 min
Webinar Playback