If you buy one book for your counseling office this year, it should definitely be My Incredible Talking Body by Rebecca Bowen! This highly affirming book is jam packed with information on the physiological signs of emotions and calming strategies in language that is easily understood by young students. Rebecca is a counselor who has over 25 years of experience working in special education, counseling, and school psychology, so you know she gets it. Keep reading for my take on the book and a couple of activities to do with your students after reading My Incredible Talking Body.
My Incredible Talking Body
Why I love it
I’ll be completely honest: when I took the book out of the packaging for the first time, I just opened to a page in the middle. It was a page showing a child taking a pretend vacation to Hawaii, listening to the waves in the shade of a palm tree. I was almost brought to tears as this is my go-to calming strategy for myself after several amazing years living in Hawaii. I was an immediate fan!
Personal connection aside, the content as a whole is truly incredible. Rebecca Bowen describes the physiological signs of feelings beautifully, using language that is easy for young children to understand. She affirms that all feelings are okay but there are some choices that are not okay. Then, she includes quite a number of practical calming strategies that children can use in school or at home to calm their bodies and minds. The illustrations are calming and gorgeous as well!
Activities
This book obviously is a great lead in to a discussion of what physiological signs your body shows you when you feel certain emotions. Create a lift-a-flap style handout with your students so that they can identify what their incredible talking bodies tell them in each area of the body for given emotions. Then, under the flaps, students can write calming strategies that will work for them when they experience that emotion.
I think the verbiage of a “talking body” is really effective and can be used in a calming area. Students can write what their talking bodies are telling them and then choose calming strategies to help them return to a calm state. These handouts are in my free resource library. Use them as regular handouts, with a page protector for dry erase, or laminate them and use velcro to attach them to the wall in your calming area.
Get the book!
Do you have My Incredible Talking Body yet? How are you using it? If you don’t have this book yet, you can get it with this Amazon affiliate link or on Rebecca Bowen’s website. You’re going to want this one on your shelf!
What other books do you want to see on the blog? Let me know in the comments section. And be sure to check out the other activities for books that I love and my top picks on Amazon!
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