#unthinkables

This feels like lost media to me, and there are no scrobbles on last.fm or listings on soulseek. I would like to share. DM me for a rip from apple music (or do it yourself using doubledouble.top or similar services)

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Michelle Garcia Winner’s Social Thinking is a great way to talk with kids about social interactions and teach them expected ways to react to situations. I’ve discussed The Unthinkables Rock Brain and Glass Man before and given some resources you can use to talk with kids about how to defeat them. Worry wall is another Unthinkable that kids (and adults!) have a hard time managing. Here’s a quick lesson and some resources you can use when you are talking about Worry Wall with kids.

Worry Wall Lesson for an Individual or Group

Materials Needed:

Green Construction Paper

Red Construction Paper

Glue

Tape

Marker

Take red and green construction paper and cut it into brick sized pieces. Glue a green piece to a red piece. Tape it on a flat wall or surface in a brick pattern with all the red surfaces facing out.

Start by talking about Worry Wall and how he takes over kids brains and makes them worry too much. Generate some ideas of what kids might worry about. It can be worries they themselves really have or worries they think kids may have. They could have worries about home or school, family or other kids. For example, a kid at the end of the school year may be worried about who their teacher will be next year. A kid might worry about who they will sit with at lunch, or if a friend will be in their classroom.  When they mention a worry, write it on one brick. Keep going until all the bricks are filled.

Now it’s time to defeat Worry Wall! Pick up each worry and generate ideas as a group for defeating worry wall. Write the strategies you’ve come up with on the green side and place it on the wall away from the red bricks, visually taking the “wall” apart. Keep going until all the bricks are flipped to the green side with positive strategies for defeating worries.

Resources to Help Defeat Worry Wall

Videos:

Mr. Worry - Based on the Little Men book, Mr Worry worries about everything. Then he meets a wizard who tells him to write down his worries and he stops worrying! Unfortunately his worries come back. It’s a great teachable moment to talk with kids about how defeating worries is not a one time thing. Chances are, you will get more worries over time and you’ll need to continue to work on defeating those worries. You just need to develop strategies to defeat them

Wemberley Worried - This is such a cute video based on the Wemberley Worried book. It would be helpful for younger kids as they are starting school and have some worries about it.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation from Inner Health Studios - I’ve used this progressive muscle relaxation with kids during therapy before, and they enjoy it. It’s a great way to calm the body and reduce anxiety.

Websites:

www.stressfreekids.com - Lori Lite created a whole system for helping kids manage anxiety. I love her book The Angry Octopus - which is a book that walks kids through a Progressive Muscle Relaxation exercise.

Relaxation Downloads from Dartmouth - a whole set of relaxation, stress relief, progressive muscle relaxation and even classical music to help calm anxiety and stress.

Book:

What to do When You’re Scared and Worried - A great resource for kids, families and counselors. The beginning of the book focuses on smaller worries, and then there are chapters dedicated to Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Panic Attacks, Separation Anxiety and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It’s written for kids, but it’s good to work through the book with an adult.  

Action Plan for Counselors:

Use the Worry Wall Lesson in a social group or lunch group for the kids that tend to worry or feel more anxious. If kids need a little bit more 1:1 attention, take a few minutes and meet with them separately to talk about their worries.

Action Plan for Parents:

Ask simply “Is there anything that you worry about?” and see what they say. Ask if they want help trying to figure out ways to defeat their worries. If they do, work together and think about some ways they can manage their worries.

Michelle Garcia Winner’s Social Thinking is designed for those who struggle with social issues. It can work for those with ADHD, Autism, Social Communication Disorder and Nonverbal Learning Disability. It can also be helpful for those kids who don’t have a diagnosis, but are having a hard time fitting in. It’s really a series of concepts you can use to work on your interactions with others - flexible thinking, expected vs. unexpected, social behavior mapping, etc. Here is a definition straight from the Social Thinking website.

“Social thinking is what we do when we interact with people: we think about them. And how we think about people affects how we behave, which in turn affects how others respond to us, which in turn affects our own emotions.” (Here is the rest of the article if you want to read more)

I like the social thinking concepts because it teaches kids to think in a social way, not just do the socially expected thing. It’s almost like cognitive behavioral therapy for social interactions. One of the ideas from Social Thinking that I first heard about was the concept of Unthinkables. In order to make Social Thinking accessible for Elementary School age kids, Michelle Garcia Winner and her colleagues created a character named Superflex. Superflex is a Superhero who is able to manage all sorts of different social situations in an expected way. He helps defeat The Unthinkables when they try to take over kids brains and make them behave in unexpected ways.

Your next question may be - what on earth is an Unthinkable? The Unthinkables are little cartoon characters that externalize particular problems kids may have. For example, Rock Brain is a character who makes kids get stuck on their own ideas.  What's neat about the Unthinkables is that it takes the focus off of the child, and instead you can talk about the behavior as a separate entity. “Rock Brain is making you get stuck, how can you defeat him? What strategy can you use?” I’ve worked with kids and families that said this was such a helpful tool for them to use.

What's cool is that over the years Michelle Garcia Winner has asked people all over the world to make up new Unthinkables. It's been really interesting to see the different characters that other kids have come up with. And there’s also been more Thinkables created as well, supporting Superflex in defeating all those Unthinkables.

Here are a few simple ways you can talk about Rock Brain at home with your child.

Compare and constrast objects

Even a simple activity comparing hard objects, like rocks to playdoh or flexible brains (kind of like stress balls) can be a helpful visual and tactile learning experience for kids.

 Rock Brain think sheet

This is a simple sheet I made to help kids learn about which Unthinkable takes over their brain, how it looks when that happens and what you can do to defeat the Unthinkable. its almost like creating a coping skills list. At the end, kids have several pages in their book with all their particular Unthinkables, and ways to defeat them.

 Books to read

Superflex takes on Rock Brain and the Team of Unthinkables - I think this was the first in the series of Superflex books. Out of all of the Superflex books, I like it the best. I feel like some of the later books have too many words on the pages and kids have said it’s too much.

The Berestein Bears and the Trouble with Friends I got this idea from Speech Room News.

Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus! - My family loves Mo Willems books and this is currently my son’s favorite. Pigeon is a perfect example of getting stuck on an idea.

 Videos to watch

Actual kids acting out what Rock Brain looks like