This story is designed to help children with neurological brain disorders age 2 to 8 define and understand their moods.

The feelings in the story are not labeled as a part of any particular disorder, nor are they labeled as symptoms of mania or depression. You may do this at your own discretion. (For example, feeling too smart, happy, hyper, silly or daring corresponds to mania in bipolar disorder. Feeling too angry, frustrated, sad or irritable corresponds to depression or mixed states in bipolar disorder. Feeling scared or surprised corresponds to anxiety or panic disorders.)

As you read this story to your child, expand the feelings to include your child's particular behaviors. For example, if your child bounces on the furniture when he is hyper, add that to the story.

Also, some of the emotions in the story may not be familiar to your child by name. Take time with your child to explore labels synonymous to the ones used in the story to expand their understanding and vocabulary of emotional terms. Terms like "elated" or "daring" are purposely used to broaden the child's ability to express their feelings and emotions.

Encourage feedback after each question.

After the story is finished, encourage your child to talk about his feelings. When you catch him in an emotional response, ask him "Are you feeling ___?"  If your child is capable of labeling his emotions, ask him "What are you feeling right now?" Many times, the discussion of the emotion can prevent symptoms of his disorder from getting out of control and help the child build insight.

A flash-version of this book is in development as well as additional scenes and emotions, so check back often for updates! Feel free to email with your feedback and suggestions.

Julie Ward
www.gcbf.org
julie@gcbf.org

Technical help: each picture changes when you click on it with the mouse. Hold the left mouse button down to view the second image, and release it to return to the original image. On the last page, click the word to see the corresponding emotion shown on the face. You may need to give the pictures a few seconds to load before clicking, depending on the speed of your internet connection. Broadband connections should have little to no delay whereas dialup connections may require a 3-5 second delay. If using Internet Explorer and the image toolbar is distracting, you can disable the floating image toolbar by clicking "Tools" > "Internet Options" > "Advanced" > "Settings" > and uncheck the box next to "Enable Image Toolbar (requires restart)".