Activities for Children

Below you will find a range of worksheets and calming activities designed for children who have been bereaved through suicide.

Worksheets

You can use these activities with your child to help them to identify their supports, and to understand and navigate their emotions. Please click on the pictures below to download a worksheet.

Calming Activities

You can use these activities with your child to help them to sooth and regulate their emotions if they are feeling overwhelmed. Please click on the + signs to view the activities. 

Basis: Being sung to and singing lulling, rhythmic, and repetitive lyrics in a gentle tone of voice has a calming effect and promotes feelings of safety and being cared for.

Practice: You can choose a song like ‘Row Row Row Your Boat’, or choose with your child their favourite lullaby or song.

Daily: Radio and music apps provide great opportunities for daily moments of practice: for example, when you’re travelling in a car or doing household chores. Perhaps you can find a special song that your child relates to – either the melody or lyrics – and sing or hum it together.

Keep singing, little and often.

Basis: Rhythmic and repetitive movement, together with a safe and caring adult, can help channel and express big sensations and emotions into bodily movement.

Practice: If you pick a song like ‘Row Row Row Your Boat’, sit comfortably across from your child. Hold hands. You can place their feet to your feet, or you can sit cross legged in front of each other. Hold hands with your child and gently start to sway, backwards and forwards, in a rowing motion. As you sing the song, gently push and pull with your arms and legs, back and forth, front to back, in big body movements.

Daily: Schedule regular times before/during/after school for practising big body movements and movement breaks. These can include dancing, jumping, cycling, swimming, sports training, and so on. We can find opportunities to sing and to dance in daily moments such as when travelling, doing household chores, or any other opportunities you might notice.

 Keep moving, little and often.

Basis: When we picture and imagine stressful situations, we can feel that stress in our body. The same applies when we picture and imagine peaceful and joyous situations: we can feel that ease and joy in our body. You can guide your child to create a safe and happy place that can help to bring these soothing sensations into their body. The more we practise imagining the qualities of this happy place, the more we can feel and sense the sensations that go with it.

Practice: You can guide your child to imagine and build this pictured place with a script like the following:

“Gently close your eyes. See if you can use your imagination to create a place where you feel completely comfortable, safe, and happy. It might be a place you’ve been to before, seen a picture of, or imagining your own happy safe place. This is a place just for you.

Picture what’s in this place. What do you see? What’s the temperature? Is there a breeze? Can you feel it on your skin now? What sounds can you hear, near and far? What can you smell? Who is there? What are you doing while you’re there? What do you feel inside while you are there?

Take a moment to enjoy being there. In a moment I will count to three and we can open our eyes, knowing that we can come back to this place in our imagination any time we like.”

Daily: Find regular times in the day to prompt your child to ‘drop-in’ and hang out for a moment in their safe and happy place. The more we practice this when feeling calm and neutral, the more readily we can picture and draw on this place in times of need.

Listening to your child’s description of their imagined safe and happy place can give you insight into the kinds of care, comfort, and joy that they might be looking for. Listening to the qualities of what they see, hear, smell, touch, taste, and what they do when they are there can help you to find ways of bringing some of these qualities into their day. For example, time to chill out, time to play favourite games, time together, hold warm/cold objects, bringing in soothing sounds, or having favourite sensory/textured toys nearby.

Basis: Our mind naturally moves back and forth, from imagined and pictured situations in the past and to the future. Holding our focus to the present moment is no easy feat! Using our 5 senses, you can help your child orient to the here and now. With prompts, you can help your child to practice finding moments of joy and gratitude within their day.

Practice: Gently and playfully ask your child to name 5 objects they can see around them, 4 things they can touch, 3 things they can hear, 2 things they can smell, and 1 thing they can taste (5-4-3-2-1). Now, notice together:

  1. One good thing from today.
  2. Something kind that happened.
  3. Something that made you smile (even the slightest smile).
    You can also draw or write down these moments with your child and include them in a ‘love jar’. This jar can help prompt and remind your child of these moments on other days. Work together to continue filling and building their love jar.

Daily: Choose regular times in the day to playfully try the 5-4-3-2-1 game, and to help your child name and identify 3 moments of gratitude they can include in their love jar. This can help teach your child to look out for the stars and the beacons of light in the night’s sky as they navigate the high seas.

Keep connecting, little and often