By Leslie Lindsay
A sip of milk and ten deep breaths: anger management for kids to help calm angry minds and soften misunderstandings.
~Apraxia Monday|Always with a Book~
Spotlight: Children‘s Literature & Emotions
Croissant isn’t happy and he’s taking it out on the rest of the breakfast plate! Toast, Scone, and Milk think he’s being mean, but Croissant feels they’re being mean to him! So take a sip of milk, ten deep breaths, and everyone and calm down and be more open.
THE GRUMPY FRUMPY CROISSANT by Mona K. and illustrated by Korey Scott, is a delightful and quirky children’s book with bold, colorful, hand-drawn illustrations easy for any child to grasp. Here, kids learn that simple communication is often the best way to solve problems.
The book even contains a delicious recipe that parents and caregivers can make with their kids, plus full-page coloring activities featuring characters from the book.
Why it might be helpful for kids with apraxia:
- It’s frustrating for kids to have ideas they want to communicate, but can’t. They may ‘act out,’ become angry, melt-down. THE GRUMPY FRUMPY CROISSANT may help visualize and normalize anger.
- Rather than trying to ‘reason’ with a young child, breakfast foods take on human traits, which may be comforting–and silly–for children with limited verbal communication.
- Make it fun! Role play or ‘play-with-your-food,’ at home. Can you act out a scene or feeling with your child about how it might feel to have limited verbal skills?
- How about a themed book party? Read this book, or other books featuring foods (like Green Eggs and Ham), then whip up some delicious food with your child(ren). Let them help by measuring, pouring, mixing, more. Talk about these things as you do them. Your child may not respond with everything, but ask for approximations, more. Just the act of being together and narrating the tasks involved will be time well spent.
- Talk about anger. Identify it as a feeling like any other…it’s normal and natural, just like love, happiness/joy, frustration, sadness, silliness, more. What other coping mechanisms can you model with anger? Stomping your feet? Punching a pillow? Taking a walk?
For more information, to connect with the author, or to order a copy of THE GRUMPY FRUMPY CROSSIANT, please visit:
Order Links:
- Support your local in-person bookstore or order through Bookshop.org
- This title may also be available through other online sellers.
- Check out my curated list of children’s literature at Bookshop.org
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mona K. lives in New Jersey with her husband and six-year-old son. She derives all of her whimsical inspiration from her son and unhealthy amounts of coffee. When she is not writing, she enjoys baking and meditating. She also loves building stories with numbers and works as a statistician during the day.
ABOUT YOUR HOST:
Leslie Lindsay is the creator and host of the award-winning author interview series,“Always with a Book.” Since 2013, Leslie, named “one of the most influential book reviewers” by Jane Friedman, ranks in the top 1% of all GoodReads reviewers and has conducted over 700 warms, inquisitive conversations with authors as wide-ranging as Robert Kolker and Mary Kubica to Helen Phillips and Mary Beth Keane, making her website a go-to for book lovers world-wide. Her writing & photography have appeared in literary journals and online. She is the award-winning author of SPEAKING OF APRAXIA: A Parents’ Guide to Childhood Apraxia of Speech, soon to be released as an audio book by Penguin Random House. She is represented by Catalyst Literary Management.
Leslie’s memoir, MODEL HOME: Motherhood, Madness & Memory is currently on-submission.
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Cover and author images courtesy of PRbytheBook and used with permission. Artistic photo of book cover designed and photographed by L.Lindsay. Follow on Instagram for more like this @leslielindsay1 #alwayswithabook #booknerd
Leslie A. Lindsay| Writer & Creative 