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What to Do When You Worry Too Much: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming Anxiety (What to Do Guides for Kids) ISBN: 9781591473145
Huebner, Dawn and Matthews, Bonnie
Published by Magination Press, 2005
In this interactive workbook for parents and caregivers to use with children, there is an introductory section on what the book is trying to do. It explains that it will use the three cognitive behavioural principles of containment, externalization and competing demands, and this, indeed, is what is done in a much simplified form. The nine chapters, with good black and white explanatory drawings and large print, give good advice on what worries are and how they make you feel, using logic to help, making a mental locked worry box where worries can be put, having a fifteen minute a day time when you can express your worries to your parents, learning to 'talk back' to worries and bash them on the head, learning how to 'reset' your system by either activity or relaxation, and, finally, how to keep the worries from coming back by being sure you are healthy. There are pages for drawing or writing specific things, and the advice is thorough and useful. The drawings of little worry bugs sitting on shoulders and being squashed will appeal to children, and even though there are some Americanisms that will seem odd to British ears ('shot' for 'injection' and 'mad' for anger' are two) they won't affect the usefulness of the book. The process will take work and commitment form both parent and child, but given time, this approach will have a significant effect. A very well produced book with lots of good ideas.
Age: 6+