Supporting Children with OCD to Understand and Celebrate Difference

A Get to Know Me Workbook and Guide for Parents and Practitioners

Louise Lightfoot

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351164665
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The 'Get to Know Me' resources aim to support children, with those around them, who may have additional/special educational needs. They are designed to empower the professionals and adults who support those with identified needs. Developed by child psychologist Dr Louise Lightfoot, the series includes activities specific to anxiety, depression and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder(OCD). In supporting the social and emotional health of students, it equips them with the ability to thrive, personally and academically.

This book has been created for key adults (teachers, therapists and parents) as a complement to the picture book and draw along versions of Tidy Tim – a traditional narrative story exploring thoughts, feelings and sensations experienced by many children with OCD. The activities in this book offer practical tools and strategies to support the child and those around them in addition to the information specific to the condition to improve understanding of a child's needs to promote empathy and acceptance.

Picture book and draw along versions of Tidy Tim are available separately, and as part of the Get to Know Me: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) set.

Chapter 1

Feelings generator

The feelings generator can help us to understand the feelings that maybe causing our behaviour. There are often many different names used to describe the same feeling and this can make it tricky to understand and express how we are feeling.

Below is an example of how the feeling ‘angry’ can be described in different ways:

Angry = mad, grumpy, frustrated, annoyed, irritated, furious, cross, fuming, raging

Can you think of anymore?

Continue to find others names for the following feelings:

• Scared
• Anxious
• Happy
• Ashamed
• Proud
• Sad
• Bad

Do you notice anything about the terms? Do some seem stronger than others? Do some fit into more than one category? Having a big emotional vocabulary can help to express our feelings and needs to others.

Using the flash cards provided overleaf, write down the different feelings and see if, when you mix them all together, you are able to group these feelings back with the initial term. For example, all feelings related to angry would be placed under the ‘angry’ flash card.

Additional activities:

• Photocopy the flash cards so there are two sets of each feeling. Use these to play ‘snap’. This helps to improve word recognition.
• Place the photocopied flash cards on a table in a random order paying close attention to the cards. Then turn them over and pick up two cards displaying the same feeling if you can remember where the cards are! Set aside each matched ‘pair’. This can be played alone or with others. The person with the most pairs wins! This game improves memory and attention.
• Mix the cards up and use to play charades. Each person should pick a card and act out that feeling whilst the other players guess. This can be done in a pair or in teams. This is useful in supporting emotional intelligence and for recognising behaviours in ourselves and others.

Chapter 2

Anxiety umbrella

Go through the book to try to find words that describe when the character is feeling strange inside. They are not good or bad words but they tell us that they are feeling different. For example, ‘tizzy’. Fill up the raindrops with all the different words you can find. Think about and discuss the following:

• Are some words easier to find than others?
• Do you know what all the words mean?
• Are all the words around anxiety ‘bad’ can you think of examples when being anxious is good?
• When does anxiety become bad?
• Do other feelings look like something else when it is really anxiety that the core feeling?
• What terms do you use when describing your emotions?

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction to the Resource Pack
• Chapter 1 Feelings generator
• Chapter 2 Anxiety umbrella
• Chapter 3 The bridge to success
• Chapter 4 Colour your feelings 1
• Chapter 5 Colour your feelings 2
• Chapter 6 Compliment cards, part 1
• Chapter 7 Compliment cards, part 2
• Chapter 8 Draw a picture of yourself
• Chapter 9 Spot the strengths!
• Chapter 10 The wrong is right game
• Chapter 11 Feelings sorter
• Chapter 12 Tidy Tim’s Activity Book
• Chapter 13 Tidy Tim’s Board Game
• Chapter 14 What happens next?
• Chapter 15 Alternate ending?