Press Reviews

• Adoption Today

  This book provides practical activities and strategies for carers of children who are experiencing stress, or who have difficulty coping with changes, or are prone to mild/moderate anxiety... Overall, I found the book easy to read and with some good practical ideas to help children cope with change and stress.

• Anxiety UK

  This book is especially helpful for children with age appropriate language levels and an ability to use images and imagination to develop an understanding of their own emotions. Many of the exercises can also be adapted for use with children with complex needs or speech and language difficulties. I found this thoughtful book an excellent and helpful resource.

• Wiley Online Library

  Deborah Plummer provides a refreshingly light, accessible text that addresses a serious issue. Packed with activities aimed at helping children to understand and manage their emotions, the target readership is primarily teachers, social workers, carers and parents. However, the book provides a useful resource for anyone seeking creative ways to help children deal with stress, anxiety and change. The photocopiable activities and suggested discussion points are pitched at children aged seven to 11, but they lend themselves to adaptation for both older and younger children. They are also adaptable if necessary, to meet the specific needs of children with communication and learning difficulties, and those who do not have English as their first language... The book's main strengths are two-fold: accessibility and versatility. It can be used as a resource to "dip into", with each part of the book being sufficiently discrete to facilitate this. Alternatively, it can be used as the basis for a "course" on coping with stress, anxiety and change. Versatility also means that the activities can be used with individual or groups of children. Irrespective of the mode of use, readers are at liberty to choose the most appropriate salient parts of the book to meet their needs. Overall, Plummer claims to have provided a resource with practical activities and strategies to help children cope with change, stress and anxiety.

• BACP, Counselling Children and Young People

  This book is a most valuable resource for the parent, the primary teacher, the nursery nurse or indeed, for any adult who is concerned with helping children to cope with the difficulties and challenges involved in a child's emotional development... In practice, the handbook inspires an abundance of creative and imaginal experiences and exercises to enable children to develop creativity, self-awareness and to raise self-esteem. The photocopiable resources are attractive and stimulating and designed to promote problem-solving, to develop resilience, and to begin to understand and self-regulate difficult feelings. The approach aims also to develop the child's emotional literacy, allowing the child to name and understand emotions that otherwise might have the capacity to overwhelm them.

• School Librarian Journal

  This book is an excellent blend of practical activities to help promote emotional health, and accessible theory to help practitioners to understand why we behave as we do, and what can be done to help children develop positive choices and emotional security... This is a most helpful and well organized for anyone involved in the holistic development of children. It is well written, clear and jargon free, with a good balance of theoretical explanation and practical activities. It has a useful list of story books (although by no means exhaustive) for use in these contexts, an index and an activities index.

• Bulletin of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists

  The exercises encourage children to link behaviours with anxiety and stress, and promote the idea of a toolbox of activities to minimise them. The book is intended for seven to 11 year olds but could be expanded to a wider age range. It would be a valuable resource for SLTs who manage emotionally-distressed children with language and social communication disorders, particularly those working in child and adolescent mental health services.

• SMIRA (Selective Mutism Information and Research Association)

  This book is full of creative ideas for use with children who have difficulty in coping with change, stress and normal levels of anxiety...This unique photocopiable activity book will be an invaluable resource for parents, carers, teachers, therapists and anyone looking for creative, enjoyable ways of helping children to cope with change, stress and anxiety.

• The Bookwatch

  is perfect for schools and teachers working with kids ages 7 and older. It offers a fully photocopiable set of activities, and combines theory with games and activities designed to help kids manage their emotions. A fine pick for any teacher's collection.