Session 1
Introduction to the programme
Exploring feelings of affection
Initial assessment through stories
Read the ‘A Walk in the Forest’, ‘Returning Home from School’ and ‘A Friend Feeling Sad’ stories below and complete the related activities.
A WALK IN THE FOREST
Imagine it is early morning and you are walking along a path in a forest. As you come to the middle of the forest, you notice that several trees have fallen to the ground. You are curious, as you know that there have been no high winds recently that would explain why the trees have come down. As you climb over the tree trunks, you see that in the middle of the fallen trees there is what looks like a small space ship.
As you carefully approach it, there is a strange noise and an opening appears at the front of the space ship. Out of the opening comes a glowing object, about the size and shape of a tennis ball. The glowing shape hovers just above you, and then slowly descends to become level with your eyes. Suddenly it disappears and there in front of you is someone who looks exactly like you.
The person who looks exactly the same as you starts to speak, with a voice the same as yours. This duplicate ‘you’ explains that it is an alien that has crashed on planet earth while observing humans. It explains that the spaceship will be repaired in a few hours, but before leaving, the alien has a very important question to ask you about humans.
The alien has observed that humans seem to need to communicate that they like or love one another, and that they do this by saying nice things to each other and touching one another. It has observed that this behaviour seems to happen particularly between friends and family members. The alien is curious as to why humans do this.
Can you explain to the alien why humans are affectionate with each other?
The alien now understands and gives you a special present. What present could the alien give you?
RETURNING HOME FROM SCHOOL
Imagine you have just returned home from school. You walk into the kitchen to let your mother know that you are home. You see that she is sitting at the kitchen table with her back to you. As you say ‘Hi’, she turns round and you notice that she is crying.
What would you do or say first?
What could you do or say to make her feel better?
A FRIEND FEELING SAD
Imagine you have arrived at school, just before your friend. As your friend enters the school grounds, you notice your friend looks very sad. Your friend explains that early that morning, his or her dog escaped from home, ran across a road, was hit by a car, and died.
What could you do or say to make your friend feel better?
1. The activities and experiences that you like
We all have activities and experiences that we like. Think of up to ten activities or experiences you like and write them in the spaces below.
| Activity or experience | How much you enjoy the activity or experience |
Some activities and experiences we like very much, others just a little.
Now imagine a scale from 1 to 100.
1–10 represents something we like just a little bit.
90–100 represents something we really like a lot.
Next to each activity or experience write the number from 0 to 100 for how much you like each one. You can choose any number in between, depending on how much you like the activity. Think carefully before you choose the number.
The person who is helping you will then write down each activity or experience on a yellow ‘Post It’, and draw a feeling thermometer that measures how strong the feeling is from 0 to 100. You can then stick each ‘Post It’ at the position on the thermometer that measures how much you like that activity or experience.
If you are in a group, look at the thermometer of each of the children in the group and see if you share any of the same activities, experiences and intensity of feeling.
2. People whom you like or love
Make a list of ten people whom you like or love and write each name in the spaces under the word ‘Person’. The person can be someone from your family or a hero from a film, television programme or book.
| Person | How much you like that person |
Some people we know we like or love very much, other people we like or love just a little.
Imagine a scale from 1 to 100.
1–10 represents someone we like just a little bit.
90–100 represents someone we love a lot.
Next to each activity or experience write the number from 0 to 100 for how much you like or love each person.
You can choose any number in between, depending on how much you like or love the person.
Liking someone may be measured from 0 to 50, and loving someone from 50 to 100.
Think carefully before you choose the number.
The person who is helping you will write down the name of each person on a yellow ‘Post It’ and draw another feeling thermometer that measures how strong the feeling of liking or loving that person is from 0 to 100. You can then stick each ‘Post It’ at the position on the thermometer that measures how much you like or love that person.
3. How do those people express that they like you or love you?
List all the ways you can think of that people show you how much they like you or love you.
4. How we feel, think and behave when someone likes or loves us
List some of the good things about being liked or loved.
How does being liked or loved affect our feelings, thoughts and abilities?
For example:
When someone likes or loves me, I feel…
When someone likes or loves me, I think…
When someone likes or loves me, I am able to…
5. What would life be like without being liked or loved?
6. List some of the things that are not so nice about being liked or loved
7. Project: Collect pictures of expressing affection
Find, cut out and save pictures or drawings of people your age expressing that they like or love someone. You might find some pictures in magazines, in clip art on your computer, or on the internet. You will need to collect about 10 to 20 pictures. Keep the pictures in a large envelope and bring the envelope and pictures with you to the next session.
8. Project: Family affection
Sometimes you might find it difficult to express your feelings of love towards your family.
Get your family to think of (and write down) some of those situations where they would expect you to express that you like them or love them, but that you find difficult.
9. Project : Social StoryTM.
Ask your family to help you to write a Social StoryTM about how liking or loving someone can affect your feelings, thoughts and abilities, using some of the ideas from today’s session.