Articles & Resources

Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activities: How am I feeling?

How am I feeling? A step of emotional literacy development is being able to recognise what our emotions are. In order to do this, we first need to consider their names and what they feel like. For children, exploring characters in stories is a first step to understanding how people feel and why they might

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Anxiety
Nicky Edwards

Why we need to look beneath child behaviour

Previously, I spoke about the child behaviour iceberg (find it here), so in this article, I want to look at the ABC of behaviour. When I started my career working as an early years practitioner, later as a Nursery Manager and then a lecturer of early years, (before eventually finding myself as an inspector) I would

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Regulation Flash Cards

Regulation Flash Cards If you have followed our article and podcast about self-regulation (if you missed it find it here) then you will know we have been talking about developing children’s emotional literacy, their ability to recognise and respond to their emotions. As part of this, supporting children to know which strategies they can use

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Anger
Nicky Edwards

The Dangers of Toxic Positivity to Connection

How often, when you have been faced with a challenge, crisis or struggle, have you been bombarded with comments to be ‘more positive’ and ‘look at the bright side’ and felt completely minimised or dismissed? In this article, I want to explore the concept of ‘Toxic Positivity’ and some of the risks that it holds

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Feelings Thermometer

Feelings  A step of emotional literacy development is being able to recognise what our emotions are. Many children can find it challenging to be able to recognise, identify and respond to their emotions, particularly emotions such as excitement and anxiety as both create adrenaline in the body. A great first step, is to encourage children

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Anger
Nicky Edwards

The importance of looking beneath the iceberg

We frequently discuss that behaviour can be likened an iceberg. However, from my experiences as both a teacher and a therapist, this can unintentionally be forgotten when it comes to managing and responding to children’s behaviour. The iceberg analogy gives us an opportunity to consider all the contributing factors which may be affecting a child’s

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Regulation Colouring Sheet

If you have followed our article and podcast about self-regulation (if you missed it find it here) then you will know we have been talking about developing children’s emotional literacy, their ability to recognise and respond to their emotions. As part of this, supporting children to know which strategies they can use when they feel

Read More »
Anger
Nicky Edwards

Fight – Flight – Freeze – Fawn, How do you react?

Fight – Flight – Freeze – Fawn Many people are familiar with the concept of the fight – flight response. When our central nervous system involuntary responds to a perceived threat, an acute stress response kicks in and each individual, depending on their own programming will respond accordingly. Fight or flight, in its simplest form,

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Affirmation Cards

Affirmations Affirmations are positive statements which are used to to help us challenge and overcome difficult or negative thoughts. They are simple statements which are repeated as part of a routine to help us move through challenges. Affirmations can also be displayed so that we can read them frequently and help us to make positive

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Adult Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

5 ways to manage emotional exhaustion

In a world that seems to never stop what do we do when it all catches up with us? After the last 2 years of constant change, expectations and challenges to navigate, a frequent comment that I hear from children, teenagers, parents and professionals is that they feel ‘exhausted’. There has been so much to

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Design your own elf

Whilst we rush about getting the last bits ready for Christmas, why not settle the little ones down for something creative. Join us and design your own elf. What you need: Download the worksheet here (find it here) Print as many copies as you need Collect up art resources Find glasses of milk (and possibly

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Adult Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

8 Ways to Protect Mental Well-being at Christmas

Whilst Christmas can be incredibly exciting. For some, it brings struggles with mental well-being, overwhelm and rising stress. Christmas can be magical, but for others, it can create sensory overload and be an overwhelming period of constant change, noises, colours and challenges to navigate. For adults, Christmas can feel like a great deal of pressure

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Feelings Wheel

Feelings  A step of emotional literacy development is being able to recognise what our emotions are. Many children can find it challenging to be able to recognise, identify and respond to their emotions, particularly emotions such as excitement and anxiety as both create adrenaline in the body. A great first step, is to encourage children

Read More »
Adult Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

The importance of gaining different perspectives

Life can be busy, and often, when I work with clients, they can find that it’s a struggle to keep things in perspective. To see the good which sits alongside the bad, or the greys amongst the black and white. When we are stressed, or experience stress for a significant period of time, it can

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activities: Christmas Walk ‘I’ Spy

Christmas is coming! So, what better time to blow the cobwebs away and get out for a wintery walk and see how many of our Christmas ‘I Spy’ items you can find from the checklist! Download it here How to use it Download the worksheet (find it here) Laminate (optional) Clip to a clipboard Attach a

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Adult Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

8 Ways to Support Your Own Mental Health

When our mental health declines, it can feel overwhelming, scary and quite exhausting. Our instincts can sometimes tell us to hide, act out or to seek out comfort seeking behaviours. However, sometimes, our instincts offer us solutions which increase the struggles that we are experiencing, and as such, we need to consider how else to

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Self-Care Cups Worksheet

Self-care Cups Whilst we all talk about self-care and recognise its importance, recognising when our self-care is low or the early warning signs that something is out of balance is important to supporting our well-being. Self-care is all about taking care of ourselves. If we imagine that we are a care, we would not expect

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Motivation
Nicky Edwards

Why we need to encourage perseverance in children

When I used to teach, my students often got fed up with me, I will add here that it wasn’t because I was a terrible teacher, but because I refused to listen to the words ‘I can’t’. ‘I can’t do it’ The words I wouldn’t abide by. I wasn’t being mean… The thing is, I

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