Therapeutic resources – Sensation & Emotion Cards
Our Sensation & Emotion Cards are a beautiful resource that children can relate to, connect with and begin to recognise and talk about their feelings and the experience and sensation of those feelings in their body.
As a teacher and educational psychotherapist, I have worked in a range of settings; schools, nurture bases, alternative provision and CAMHS, building trusting relationships with children, particularly those who struggle to manage, understand and express their emotions. Providing children with the skills of emotional literacy and opportunities to make sense of their emotional world, has been a vital part of helping children to access learning, to be able to develop social and emotional skills and to gain self-awareness and confidence.
The idea for the sensation and emotion cards came in part from talking with children about where in their body they might notice a feeling, a sensation, a tingling energy that could help them bring the name of the emotion to mind.
Throughout my work, it has been evident that children need opportunities to develop a wide vocabulary and a language of emotions so they can express themselves and feel understood. There are already so many lovely resources, including emotion cards, that can be used at home or in school to give children knowledge of emotions, but we wanted to create something unique and more expressive. We wanted to cover how the emotions feel inside our bodies and what they might look like so that we could bring language to the sensations, the physiological features, the facial expressions and body language too, developing a richness of language that children can relate to.
A vivid memory I have is on a visit to a school, I recall seeing a 6 year old boy go to his teacher saying how he felt sick in his tummy. He looked sad and crestfallen and anxious all at the same time. The teacher responded beautifully, she knelt down and said: “I wonder if the sick feeling feels a bit like tingles in your tummy, or butterflies and that you perhaps are a bit worried about your maths?”
The boy looked directly at her and nodded tentatively. She took him by the hand and said “Let’s see if we can help your tummy to feel better and you to feel less worried if I help you with your maths.” Magically the sickness in his tummy disappeared as the teacher helped him by naming the sensation and the feeling, helping to put language to his experience and he was able to complete the maths he had been struggling to do. Here he had a new feeling, relief, pride, comfort and different sensations in his body.
Such a magical way of helping children put language to the sensations they feel gives them the words and understanding for their emotions.
It helps them to know they are understood, that they are not alone in their experience and it gives them permission to feel a wide range of feelings, and broaden their vocabulary and self-awareness.
The 60 different sensation and emotion cards present images and words that help children to recognise different feeling states, different facial expressions for a range of feelings, how body language is expressed and the energy behind a feeling. They also help to put language and words around the physiological experience, the sensation that children may feel too so that they can become self-aware and confident in their own expression.
It is important to highlight that the cards provide a richness of language and that there is no right or wrong to how we each experience emotions and children can use their own words and express their own feelings or sensations and this needs to be encouraged.
The cards can be used in a range of ways by teachers, parents, therapists or trusted adults that spend time with children and are able to listen, talk to and help children feel understood and able to express how they feel.
Any queries please visit the sensation and emotion cards page or email hello@hamishandmilo.org with your question.
