The Very Hungry Worry Monsters

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Model one of yours. It might be, ‘I’m worried that I have so much work to do today, and I won’t be able to get it done.’ Then put a wood slice into the worry monsters mouth. It has ‘eaten’ that worry. Once the child is asleep or elsewhere, remove the note and the child will notice the monster has “eaten their worries”. This will help them manage their intrusive thoughts so they can enjoy their day or are able to sleep at night.

Anxiety is a bully. It bosses your child around, tells them they are not good enough, and causes high amounts of fear. Suddenly, your anxious child begins to see anxiety as a part of them, bringing down their self-confidence and opinion of themselves. The best way to help your child battle anxiety is to name the worry monster, thus, making sure that the anxiety is seen externally. This process allows children to keep their own identify strong while externalizing the anxiety as the bully. Place a dab of glue above the open mouth in the center of the box for each eyeball. Place the eyeballs on the box. Park feelings or emotions that they may not be able to cope with at the present moment until they are ready to deal with them. Quite simply, anything that they are worried about, talk about it, and place something into the mouth of the monster. This talking therapy gets issues out of your mind, at least temporarily, and hopefully results in a better night’s sleep. 14. Worry Monster BookNatural objects are also a good choice, as they have calming textures in the hands. Things like leaves or conkers would work well, as would many other types of loose parts materials. 3. Emotion Pebbles

When your child wakes they will see no worries left behind as the monster has eaten it and also you will be able to know what is worrying your child so you can help. This is a soft plushie with a zip mouth designed to help children with anxiety or OCD. Simply have the child write a note or draw a picture of their worry and put it in the monster's mouth. Sometimes writing down a worry can be helpful in itself. So, when a worrying or troubling thought comes into a child's mind, they can scribble down their thoughts, or draw a pictureand feed it to their worrymonster. Now that’s fun. And will hopefully help them understand and overcome their anxiety with support from the social worker.” And then start a story. The way to include worry in the story, is to get the children to visualise something their worried about, and somehow trap the worry.This may work well if your child is capable of using their imagination and visualize the concept of a worry box. First, get the children all to think of something that might be worrying them. This can be a difficult concept, so don’t worry if it takes a few tries at this activity for them to ‘get’ it. Leanne Manning, Oxfordshire County Council social worker , said: “I know one of the local children, Casey ( pictured below ). She loves her worry monster. It has pride of place in her bedroom, helping her and reducing anxiety.”

It could be quite simple differently colored pebbles. Or they could have simple writing patterns on them, maybe things like swirls or zig-zags. Worry dolls are one great option for bedtime, and I’ve written a whole article about different strategies you can employ with worry dolls, that you can read here. This Canadian muggle might be a no-laugher (despite her energy vampire husband's jokesies), but Dyan's a fierce advocate for her two boys and passionate about all things hyperlexia and autism. While the box is drying, cut the white foam paper to look like teeth. You can make them square or triangular. We chose the triangular ones. Another great idea for ownership is for the children to make the worry monsters themselves. This is very achievable.

Some pieces of dried food can be a good one, as the children associate them with eating. Something like dried pasta, for example. In this particular small group activity, students each create their own unique worry monsters, choosing from different bodies, eyes, mouths, arms, and even legs. Some students make worry monsters that look quite scary while others make worry monsters that appear friendly, and that’s okay. First, get the children to lie on the floor and close their eyes. You could potentially put someone relaxing music on. Now you’re going to lift the box onto a ship. We’re sailing over the sea now, with the box still on the ship. A child with separation anxiety starts to worry about leaving to go to school. As a parent, you can say, “It sure looks like Bossy Pants is trying to scare you. I know Bossy Pants is loud and scary but you are brave and know that I will see you as soon as school is finished. Be brave and don’t listen to mean old Bossy Pants.” A child may say, “Bossy Pants is scaring me about school right now. I am telling her that she is just a bully and even though I feel scared, I know I will see you after school.”