Baby Bear - Be Aware

I heard recently about a book recommended for working with quite young children who have been subjected to or experienced domestic violence (DV). The book is called "How are you feeling today, Baby Bear?" by Jane Evans. It is, I think, a really sweet book, lovely size, appropriate colours and engaging characters. I might perhaps question whether the quality of the illustrations could be improved, yet overall, no issues at all.

I felt pleased this week to have the opportunity to try out my new resource with two groups of children - a group of 5 Reception aged children and 3 children in Year One. As a teacher of early years and KS1, I feel somewhat confident in my judgements in terms of selecting age-appropriate,suitable resources. The book was marketed for children aged 4-8 who had experienced DV and it appeared perfectly appropriate. It was a complete flop with both groups!

The Reception children looked to be feeling very afraid and one child welled up with tears, biting their nails fervently. The children in Year One were unequivocal and unanimous in their feedback: "It was [felt] too scary!" One page where the children responded to the illustration very strongly was the picture of the bear snuggled up in bed looking like he feels worried and frightened as the row rages downstairs. Despite the fact he's furry, it could be a picture of a child.

Reflecting on the experiences, I concluded that although a 'bear' character can be one-step removed for an adult, that actually for a small child, an anthropomorphisised bear who sleeps in a real bed, lives in a normal house, speaks, drinks from a beaker, and attends nursery might as well be a real child. All the children seemed to identify too closely with the Baby Bear in the story. This led me to thoughts of how safe is it to take a child to such an unsafe place in their mind? I persisted to finish the book because the end emphasises networks and I thought this was an important connection to make. The children did understand that and could identify the Baby Bear's network person (his teacher) in the story.

I won't use this book in this way with children this age again, although I think the book has value as a resource.
Would love to hear if anyone else has any feedback on this book? Or ideas of how to use it?


Judith

I contacted the author of this book and explained that although I appreciate its value as a resource for young children who have experienced DV, the children I work with had felt frightened by the story and the illustrations, too real and too similar perhaps to things they had lived and felt/feel unsafe about. The author, Jane Evans, felt saddened to hear the children had felt upset. She emphasised that the book is intended to be used in a 1-to-1 situation for maximum benefit to children.

I used it today 1-to-1 with a child who is 9 years old. She understood the story and the engaged well. For now, I will use the book with children in lower key stage two (aged 7-9 years).

Again, it would be really great to hear from other practitioners and professionals who have used this new publication with young children, and how the sessions went.
Judith

How great to get such a prompt reply from the author Judith. Glad it worked better one to one this time around. I guess just because it didn't work at first, a different group of children may have a different response, but like you, I think I would proceed with caution. Congratulations on being so proactive.
Ann

Wow, thanks for the 'heads up' on this Judith - my copy arrived today and like you I'm thinking hard about how to use it and what to recommend to others. From you comments I am reminded about some words/advice that Margot Sunderland gave at a conference Maureen organised a couple of years ago. Margot has written a number of therapeutic stories, the purpose of which I believe is to help people understand the things that may have happened to them and also to be able to tell their own story. My understanding is that reading such a story to a whole class group could 'normalise' the situation and not accentuate it's effect for individual children - they are therefore, hearing the story in a 'safer' environment. Not sure yet whether this is the case or not although do think that stories provide a wonderful opportunity to talk with someone about anything, even if it feels awful or small.

To follow up the original question as to whether the Baby Bear was one-step removed enough for young children, a really interesting conversation came about here at home and it confirmed my thoughts that possibly one-step removed is on a developmental continuum where some resources are concerned, and that being mindful of this is essential when selecting suitable resources for PBs with children. I think that for them to feel safe, the element of one-step removed has to be considered from their viewpoint directly keyed into their age and stage of development.

Our little girl who is 7 years old and is developmentally in line with age related expectations, came into the dining room and found a toy on the table. She said "Oh mummy, this was the man in the spotty clothes I was asking you about the other day! I didn't want to say the 'purple' man because that would have been labelling, so I just said the man with the spotty clothes, and this is him! I've been looking for him everywhere!"

I will attach a photo of the man. It is actually a purple koala (who is on TV and lives in a house in Australia and drives a car...) At no point did this dawn on our daughter - that the character is an anthropormorphised animal. To her, it's a man.

What an interesting observation Judith.

I wonder if when using a 'character' , be it in a book or actually 'there' children would see it as just that, a 'character' rather than a person if we were to label it as what it is as well as by name. By this I mean if the adult was to reinforce verbally throughout 'Barney, the dinosaur' or 'Rupert, the bear'? Perhaps that would reinforce that although the character is part of a story, doing things children or adults may do, they are actually 'themself'

I don't think I've written that at all well (!) but hope it makes sense Perhaps those with younger children could give it a go?

Ann