Sunderland (2001) in her book Using Story Telling as a Therapeutic Tool with Children states that very young children who do not yet have the language to describe what they are feeling or do not yet any prior real-life experiences to draw on in understanding their own emotions can really benefit from developmentally appropriate stories and pictures with characters who might encounter situations and feelings that they can identify with. Sunderland (2001) explains that when a young child wants to revisit the same story again and again and might even want to linger in a certain part of a story, it can be because the young child identifies with the feelings and emotions that the character in the story is going through and this helps them to process and work through their own emotions in a safe place. Chatting together about how the character in the story might be feeling and why is one way to help support children who are processing their own feelings and thoughts about things.
The children’s picture book ‘Ruby’s Worry’ by Tom Percival, published by Bloomsbury (2017) is a storybook that I’ve enjoyed re-reading over and over with young children (by popular request). The little ones get quiet and thoughtful listening to this story. Its text and illustrations do a wonderful job of helping young children to understand about the emotion of worry and how it can make them feel.
When reading this story to children the first few times I just read the story and follow their pace as they take it all in and look at the pictures. But once they know and are familiar with the story’s sequence after having read it a few times, it flows very easily and naturally to chat a bit about what Ruby learned in the story. I find that they can all readily identify with the character of Ruby in the story and as it is very much new social and emotional learning to understand that they are not alone when they feel worried, but others can feel the same way sometimes. The idea presented in this lovely story that they need to tell someone who can help them when they feel worried is new and important social and emotional learning for them. Young children really benefit from revisiting a new concept several times and chatting about it as they process newly learning.
I really love reading this beautiful children’s book with little ones and have found it to be a fabulous resource to support their social and emotional development. Thanks to this excellent book, my preschoolers know that when they have a worry, the best thing to do to feel better is to talk about it.