Feelings Game For Children (or Adults)
I had a long talk with my daughter about why we have timeout. Ultimately the reason is that we want to teach emotional regulation. The healthiest people tend to be able to recognize the differences between feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. They understand what their unmet wants are, and they know how to take responsibility for what they can do to help themselves self regulate.
Much of this comes from my experience as a patient at McLean Hospital, Harvard's psychiatric facility, and seeing how much people can be helped by understanding and practicing these simple concepts. One of the main premises is that we cannot change our feelings, but we can control our thoughts and behaviors through our choices and that these can influence feelings.
These are difficult concepts for a child. So I thought I might attempt to make a game/activity that might help teach this better. This is just a quick brainstorm, so please be kind, but this is the idea. The game consists of a series of cards and the child has to lay out them depending upon how they are feeling.
- Stage 1: Identify Feelings and Unmet Wants
- Stage 2: Identify Thoughts Behind Feelings
- Stage 3: Identify Behaviors That These Feelings Motivate in You
- Stage 4: Identify Ways to Self Regulate That Show You Take Responsibility
What do you think?
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