Last week we were on our way to pick up our Goldendoodle, Jellybean, from the groomer.
I so excited to see Jellybean. I miss her, Jackson said.
I could tell he was bubbling with excitement by the way he was bouncing up and down; his smile wide and radiant. He could not wait to see his dog!
Now that he’s found his voice, Jackson tells us how he feeling more and more.
I scared of thunder and lightening.
I no like haircuts. They scary.
I love Jellybean. She’s good dog.
I love vehicles, Mom!
I’m so thankful he’s labeling his feelings, but regulating those BIG emotions is something we still struggle with.
When a child has ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder or other special needs, feelings can go from 0 to 10 in the matter of seconds.
This was happening a lot when Jackson was still attending public school.
Anxiety and sensory overload caused him to experience a wide variety of feelings and he couldn’t cope.
His way of dealing with the big emotions in the midst of the madness – fight or flight!
After meeting with the ABA Therapist who works with our local school district (and getting her feedback), we know we still have a lot of work to do to help Jackson regulate those big feelings – especially in really stressful situations.
I ordered a few books last week about feelings and I highly recommend them if you have a kiddo who struggles with regulating his/her emotions.
Jackson and I cuddled up on the couch last night and read all three books. We talked about what makes us happy, sad, angry and excited. These books are going to be a great resource for us as we work to help him regulate his big emotions.
I’m Feeling Macaroni and Cheese
This is a cute book about feelings based on crayons! Each color represents a feeling and at the end of each description it asks: What color is silly to you? Jackson chose blue for every feeling. Blue is his favorite color. We’ll keep working on that!
In My Heart
Jackson was immediately drawn to the cut-out heart shapes in this book! This book describes our heart as the place where our feelings live. We can have big feelings, small feelings, loud feelings and quiet feelings. We can feel more than one thing at once. It describes each feeling and then ends with: This is when my heart feels happy, brave, angry, hurt, etc. At the end of the book it asks: How does your heart feel? Jackson informed me that his heart felt happy!
The Way I Feel
I loved the illustrations in this book! They are bright and colorful. On each page, the “feeling” word is written in a fun font that stands out. The descriptions of each feeling are very kid-friendly – simple and easy for kids to understand. I love that this book includes feelings like gratitude, frustration, bored and disappointed.