A Peek at Part of an Update Email and an Important Book to Read to Your Clients

Hi folks-

Online sessions continue to go well! 

-Managing fear/anxiety: We read and discussed a fun, engaging book - Get Me Out of This Book: Rules and Tools for Being Brave. 

Here's the vid if you want to review with your child and fam- we went page by page with me reading on EPIC! Books for kids: watch the video

We first talked about how we have learned about tools through Zones of Regulation®- 
-A Blue Zone tool perks us up if we are bored, sad, sick
-A Green Zone tool keeps us in the green zone, feeling calm, happy, ok
-A Yellow or Red zone tool calms if we are anxious or very afraid
-And a tool can be an object, action or thought 

In the book a Bookmark (a wacky character like this is fun) gets anxious because of scary content in books, like pages with snakes or sharks.

He learns three strategies: 
-breathe 
-make a plan 
-think a good thought 

I discussed with the boys that learning that you can change your thinking is a lifelong lesson. I have had to use these strategies constantly and I talked about how I had to coach my own mom (in her 70s now) when she sent me some worried texts recently. The boys understood why this discussion was important currently. The book makes clear in a note at the end that these three strategies are ones learned by Navy SEALs!...

Some notes:
-An almost middle-schooler in this group is often overly concerned/critical of materials being babyish when they are not, and appeared to enjoy the book thoroughly.
-Reading books interactively is a great activity for teletherapy
-If you don't already know about EPIC! it is a free (for educators, always) e-reading library. The book in question is here. 
-This book could make a great story grammar map. It is also an example of metalinguistics, talking about elements of stories, and a kind of metanarrative (a story being aware that it's a story).