Page 26 - Whispering Squirrels

These children are engaging in these ineffective behaviors because of their inability to utilize any other more mature type of coping skills and because of the negative reinforcement they receive when engaging in these “primitive” methods of coping.
Young children should be able to relate to the characters in the story since they have typically had little opportunity to learn other (better) ways of coping with “Whispering Squirrels” situations. You want them to learn that even though there may be some immediate “reward” to their typical behaviors in these situations, from “getting their way,” to avoiding a difficult task, there are also negative short and long term consequences.
Briefly discuss the story and make sure that your child understands the relationship between their thinking, their emotions and their behaviors. Our thinking can either be “Good” or “Stinky.”
Good Thinking is thinking that is based on how things are in reality. For example, if your parent tells you to turn off the TV and study and you tell yourself, “I hate to leave this show but my parent is right, I need to study for this test tomorrow,” you are using Good Thinking.
Stinky Thinking is when you tell yourself things that are not based on reality. In the same situation, Stinky Thinking would be if you told yourself, “My parent is just being mean to me, I should be able to watch TV as much as I want and never have to study.”
Our thinking is what causes our emotions. Our emotions can be good like happiness and pride or bad, like excessive anger or shame. It is important to learn how to have emotions that are appropriate for the situation. This takes work and paying attention to your thinking. Good Thinking leads to OK emotions while Stinky Thinking leads to Not OK emotions.
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