Activity
Area

try some of these:

- “I wonder if you’re feeling… after… happened.”
- “What should we start doing/ keep doing/ stop doing as a family?”
- “I wonder how I can support you when you’re feeling…”
- “I can see you are feeling…, what do you need from me?”
- “What activities or things help you to feel calm and relaxed?”
- “When I am feeling… I like to…” (bringing our stories into the conversation can help children feel less alone and give other strategies)




Have you had this conversation with your child: “How was school?”, “Good”, What did you do?”, “Nothing”. Me too- along with every parent! With just a few words changed, you might get a bit more.

Starters for everyday conversations:

- What did you learn at school today?
- What was something you did today that made you proud?
- Who did you play with today?
- What was something kind you saw today?
- What are you looking forward to this week?
- What was the best part of this week?

Sometimes, big conversations are difficult to start. If we ask simple things such as “how are you feeling?” or “what is going on?” you will find that you get pretty short answers such as “ok”, “nothing”. But what if we changed the way we ask? What if we show more curiosity? I wonder if we would get more depth!

What if we changed our understanding of behaviour? If instead of thinking about behaviour as wrong or difficult and needing punishment, what if we thought about those moments as communication? Behaviour is trying to tell me something that my child cannot say- how am I going to respond, how can I understand?