Welcome to Alcove Child and Youth Resources
Last week we started a series on therapeutic stories that teachers, therapists, and parents can use to help children to identify and express their emotions appropriately. We began with the emotion of anger and shared a video with the first five of ten of our favourite storybooks to help young children talk about their angry feelings. If you missed last …
Happy New Year! To kick off 2019, we will be starting a new series on therapeutic stories. We want to take some time and review some of our favourite children’s books that deal with subjects like sadness, grief, anger, social skills, and more, in order to help you find resources to assist you in your work with children. Therapeutic stories …
As I’ve written in previous posts, I like to take time early in my work with a child or young person to talk about emotions, to assess what the child’s emotional awareness is, her ability to express a wide range of emotions, and how she copes with various emotions. Having a sense of a child’s emotional intelligence at the start …
I love using feeling charts with my therapy clients. For almost every kind of presenting issue, some kind of emotion chart will usually make an appearance within the first session or two when I am working with a child. Using this tool helps me assess and improve a child’s emotional awareness and vocabulary, which are important aspects of a child’s …
As I shared in a previous post on an activity called “A Feeling for All Seasons”, I use emotion charts with most of my child and some of my teen clients. I find they help kids to identify and verbally express their emotions, learn to recognize and empathize with others’ emotions, and as a result help children learn how to …
If you are working with small children in counselling or in a classroom setting, you are going to need more than worksheets and conversation skills – you’re going to need some toys. No 6 year-old wants to just sit around and talk about their problems – and often times younger kids don’t have the ability to do so, even if …
No matter our age, we all need to feel safe. Safety is so vital for our lives that it’s at the very base of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, only one step up from physiological needs like food and shelter. After we are fed and clothed and housed, we need to feel safe before we are able to pursue other needs …
One of the most common problems clients will bring to therapy is anxiety. Estimated to afflict as much as 33.7% of the population at some point in life, an anxiety disorder can be a debilitating issue to endure. Cognitive behavioural therapy continues to be the standard approach for working with people with anxiety disorders. In this model, clients learn coping …
Today’s post is not a therapy or educational resource – but it is a positive reinforcement tool to help very young children learn bathroom skills. We are working to potty train a toddler in our house at the moment. While we have been using lots of positive reinforcement in the form of praise, she has been very sporadic in her …
Summer is winding down! Cue the sweaters, the scarves, the fuzzy socks, and of course the Back-to-School rush. While I am not exactly keen on shorter, cooler days, the changing of seasons does provide a great opportunity to bring some seasonal touches into the classroom or counselling office. One way to do that is with some Fall-themed feeling faces. I …
