Where a feeling sits

The sheet

A plain body outline to mark where a feeling starts, with a short list of feeling words on the back.

To make together · A4, two sides · Two pages · PDF, 48 KB

How it helps

Children often notice a feeling in their body before they can name it: a tight chest, a hot face, a churning stomach. Marking where it starts gives them words for it, and an early signal they can learn to notice before the feeling gets too big.

How to use it

1. Choose a calm day, not the middle of an upset, and sit down together with some coloured pens.
2. Pick one feeling from the words on the back, and ask your child where they notice it first. They choose a colour and mark it, and there are no wrong places.
3. If they’re stuck, tell them where yours starts, and make it clear that theirs might be somewhere else. Two or three feelings are plenty for one sitting.
4. Keep the sheet, and come back to it after a hard moment: “Where did that one start?” If a stomach ache or headache keeps coming back, see your GP before you put it down to feelings.
5. If your child has been through something frightening, take it slowly, and stop if they dislike it. If what they mark or say suggests that someone has hurt them, don’t ask them to show or tell you more: the back says what to do that day.

How to get this sheet

This sheet comes with a subscription. It is also yours with its chapter, if that is the chapter you read free, or if a teacher or therapist sends it to you. School staff and therapists signed in to their shelf can print it too.

It goes with Big Feelings and Co-Regulation and Anxiety, by Age.

Free to print

These are free to anyone, with nothing to sign up for.

• A plan for a bad dayTo fill in together · A4
• Before you ring the schoolFor a call or a meeting · A4
• What to say: school and friendsCards to cut out · A4, eight cards to cut
• Before the SENCo meetingFor a meeting · A4
• Three reports, side by sideFor a meeting · A4 landscape
• The return-to-school meetingFor a meeting · A4
• The move to secondary school, for a parents’ eveningFor a parents’ evening · A4, five pages
• The last half-hour before bedFor the fridge · A4
• The worry ladderTo fill in together · A4
• Before you see the GP about your childFor an appointment · A4, two sides
• A record of what happenedFor a call or a meeting · A4, two pages
• The people I can tellTo make together · A4, two pages

Every sheet, marked free or with a subscription, is at theparentbook.com/printables.