My Brilliant Brain: A Practical Resource for Understanding Anxiety and Implementing Self-Calming

Liz Bates, Nigel Dodds

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000527629
• Topic: Psicologia
• Subtopic: Didattica generale

For effective use, this book should be purchased alongside the storybook. Both books can be purchased together as a set, My Brilliant Brain: A Storybook and Guide for Understanding Anxiety and Implementing Self-Calming, 978-1-032-06903-6.

This resource uses simple yet effective shared language for adults and children, allowing them to talk about anxiety, and taking away the shame and blame that children may experience in response to these emotions. It encourages sharing, allowing the feelings of worry and anxiety to become normalised and the child to feel more in control.

Full of activities and experiential learning for individual children, groups or classes, this guide covers topics such as:

• The brain, the amygdala, what anxiety is and how it is normal.
• Demonstrating and modelling calm, even if you are not, to help reassure and protect the children under your care.
• Self-calming activities and strategies.
• Being a Child in Charge – helping children to develop individual strategies that work best for them.

Designed for use alongside the storybook Myg and Me: Understanding Anxiety and Implementing Self-Calming, teachers, support staff, therapists and parents will find this guidebook an indispensable tool in the process of helping the children they interact with to feel a sense of self-determination and self-efficacy.

Session 1 My Brilliant Brain

DOI: 10.4324/9781003204459-2

Finding out about my brain

The Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 Science curriculum will have introduced children to some concepts that can be related to the brain.

Key Stage 1

Naming parts of the body – children will have named ‘the head’.

Your brain sits inside your head.

Animals have basic needs for survival – water, food, air.

The brain tells you when you are thirsty and hungry and controls your lungs so that you breathe.

Key Stage 2

Humans have skeletons – the skull is part of the skeleton.

Your brain sits inside your skull.

Light helps us to see.

Your eyes are part of your brain.

Human development to old age.

Your brain began to grow 16 days after fertilisation.

Your growth and development are controlled by your brain.

Everything that makes you who you are is controlled by your brain.

It may be helpful to recap on this learning.

Read pages 1 and 2 of the storybook Myg and Me.

Discussion – My brilliant brain

Use all the questions from pages 1 and 2 in the storybook as discussion starters.

What do you think your brain helps you to do?

Bring in all the senses, too, such as:

• My brain enables me to feel my dog’s fur when I stroke her.
• My brain enables me to see my friend’s smiling face.
• My brain enables me to hear my favourite singer/band.
• My brain enables me to smell the fish and chips my dad brings home.
• My brain enables me to taste hot chillis, ice cream and strawberry laces.

On the IWB (interactive white board), write the following sentence:

Th nxt qstn s nmbr fv; wrt tht nmbr n yr bk.

Can anyone work out what that sentence is?

The sentence is:

The next question is number five; write that number in your book.

Our brilliant brains can even read a sentence when some of the letters are missing.

With some children, you may want to use a simpler approach:

What are these animals?

ct dg pg cw tgr cml lphnt

Our brilliant brains can even read words when some of the letters are missing.

Activity – My brilliant brain (Appendix 1)

In the brain outline, draw pictures or write lots of examples of what your brilliant brain can do.

Invite the children to talk about what is in their brain picture.

Activity – Facts and fibs (Appendix 2)

Children can have a set of questions and work through the facts and fibs individually, in pairs or in small groups – sharing responsibility for the answers, deciding which is a fact and which is a fib.

When all groups have answered, they can then share with the whole class.

Using Appendix 3, you can then give them the correct answers – reinforcing just how brilliant our brains are.

You could extend this activity by setting a research project to find out more detail about the facts and the true answers for the fibs. Or for the children to find out more facts about the brain.

Activity – Where in the brain? (Appendix 4)

The brain outline shows that different areas of the brain are responsible for different reactions and responses.

This is a rough diagram, but gives an idea of where certain areas are located – not just on the outer surface but within the brain.

Please note that, although our eyes are at the front of our heads, the part of the brain responsible for vision is located at the back.

A project folder for Myg and Me or My Brilliant Brain can be started for all their activity sheets and any other supporting work.

Session 2 Meet Myg

DOI: 10.4324/9781003204459-3

A bit more about the brain

Read pages 3–8 of the storybook Myg and Me.

Activity – Where's Myg? (using Appendix 4)

So we know that ‘Myg’ is short for ‘amygdala’.

We know that it is a very special part of our brain.

Have a guess – where in the brain is Myg the amygdala?

Children can draw a tiny Myg on Appendix 4 showing where they think the amygdala might be.

You can then show them (Appendix 5) and explain that the amygdala is deep inside the brain not on the surface.

A lot of the time Myg is laid-back, watching the world go by, but the reason that Myg is so important is because it leaps into action by spotting where there is danger and helps to keep us safe by responding to danger.

So what does Myg do?

Read pages 9–12 of the storybook Myg and Me.

The amygdala ‘wakes up’ when it thinks there might be danger. This is a very important job because it can help us in an emergency. It gets us ready to fight an alien, to run away from a crocodile or even to play dead if a big purple hairy monster is looking through our windows. But even though we don’t live surrounded by crocodiles or other wild animals or weird creatures, our amygdala is ready to protect us from the dangers we might actually meet. Imagine crossing the road and then suddenly a lorry comes around the corner heading for you … You’d run as fast as you could to the side of the road … without even thinking about it. That’s because your amygdala is in charge. It gives you the strength and the speed to run by sending messages to the rest of your brain and all around your body.

So Myg is great at getting our bodies ready when there is a danger. And the messages Myg sends around the body causes certain things to happen.

So, to shout ‘No’ at the alien and throw my backpack really hard, I need lots of energy in my body. I need to take deep breaths, and I need strength in my arms.

To run away from the crocodile, I need strength in my legs.

And, because a big purple hairy monster is really scary, Myg shuts everything down so I can hide.

We call these responses:

• Fight – fighting the alien
• Flight – fleeing from the crocodile
• Freeze – so still the big purple hairy monster can’t see me

Activity – Appendix 6 (Fight, flight, freeze)

Children can work through this activity individually, in pairs or in small groups, and then share their answers with everyone else. This activity can include all sorts of reasons for the actions. They do not have to be related to fear and anxiety and they do not have to be factual or based in reality. It is to encourage children to think about how they use their bodies – sometimes we choose to shout or run or freeze, but sometimes these things also happen automatically.

Discussion

What else might happen to someone’s body if they met an alien or a croco...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Session 1 My Brilliant Brain
• Session 2 Meet Myg
• Session 3 This Happens to Everyone
• Session 4 Where is My Brilliant Brain?
• Session 5 Lots of Ways to Help
• Session 6 Being a Child in Charge
• 1 – My Brilliant Brain
• 2 – Facts and Fibs
• 3 – Facts and Fibs Answers
• 4 – Where in the Brain...?
• 5 – Here is the Amygdala
• 6 – Fight, Flight and Freeze
• 7 – Body Outline
• 8 – When Might Someone Feel Anxious?
• 9 – Yes, No, Maybe
• 10 – Anxious?
• 11 – What Can’t I Do?
• 12 – FFF – How Might They Look?
• 13 – ‘Can I Talk to You?’
• 14 – I Can Do This
• 15 – Child in Charge Cards
• 16 – Child in Charge Certificate