Kimochis® - Communication tools for managing life’s challenges.
Kimochi
By Elizabeth Sautter, M.A. CCC-SLP.Expressing our emotions can be a struggle at any age. Encouraging children to talk about their feelings at an early age will not only calm them, but will also make things easier to manage as they get older.We’re very lucky in today’s environment that we have wonderful techniques to help us through the process. We were honored to have Ellen Prichard Dodge speak at Communication Works about Kimochis®. Kimochi (KEY-MO.CHE) means “feeling” in Japanese. Kimochis…Toys With Feelings Inside® are lovable characters with their own personalities and temperament traits much like our own children. Each character and fun activity helps children practice tone of voice, body language, and word use during emotional moments. This will help children learn the communication tools for managing life’s challenges. Each character comes with three small feeling pillow with a feeling word (happy, sad, silly, brave…) printed on one side, and a corresponding facial expression on the other. The characters and feelings encourage kids to consider what communication skills they need to work on to get along better with people and do their best in school and at home!
Cloud® is moody and unpredictable like the weather. This helps to teach the children how to be mad without being mean.
Bug is a caterpillar who is afraid of change. Bug helps children learn to be inclusive in plays. This can help the shy child to ask questions and try new things when they don’t know the answer.
Huggtopus® is very affectionate and strong and sometimes gets a little carried away by her big personality. Since she does not know her own strength and can accidently upset or annoy others, Huggtopus® is a good teacher for helping children look for the nonverbal signs that is needed to settle down and notice other people’s feelings.
Cat is a decisive leader and can sometimes be a little prickly on the outside, but soft on the inside. She teaches kids to apologize, forgive and learn how to be a positive leader without being bossy.
Lovie Dove® has a very nurturing and compassionate personality. She tends to worry and is a good teacher for learning how to be supportive without taking over.
The Kimochis® characters provide a safe, third party for parents and children to learn to be more patient and tolerant with one another and gain tools to overcome challenging behaviors. Since we know that feelings fuel behavior and language helps us mediate those disputes, it is important to intentionally teach these life skills.We have used the Kimochis® curriculum in therapy to support social-emotional development in many ways, such as:
Talking about social scenarios and help build emotional language by having kids figure out how these characters are feeling in certain situations.
Talking about how the children relate to certain Kimochi's characters will help increase emotional awareness.
Providing brainstorming "tools" the kids could use when they are in certain social situations and are feeling a certain way (e.g., using a kind voice, taking a deep breath, etc).