Summary
During the pandemic we witnessed how children’s mental health progressively deteriorated, giving way to several initiatives designed to prevent and promote mental health. Early childhood and education psychologists Chamarrita Farkas, María Pía Santelices and Katherine Strasser invite us to discover a collection of children’s stories to promote emotional development.
The collection of children’s stories, entitled “Think, Imagine and Feel Collection,” consists of a literary selection targeting 3 to 5-year-olds to promote mentalizing language, for use in an early childhood education setting and reading at home.
Written for children between the ages of 3 and 5, six of the stories are designed to be read at home whereas the other six are meant to be used in early childhood education settings. The stories address sundry topics such as emotions, caring for the environment, interpersonal relationships, and respecting diversity.
The stories are designed to use reading as opportunity for parents and children to interact, while promoting emotional development through mentalizing language, which seeks to bring to mind not only what is happening outside, but also inside, e.g., the emotions, thoughts and desires of the characters in the stories and the readers.
It has been shown that when children acquire a mentalizing type of language and vocabulary, it can help them with their social-emotional development, which assists them in regulating their emotions since they have the words to describe what they are experiencing and feeling.
This collection of short stories is now available for purchase and can be found at bookstores such as Qué Leo, Contrapunto, Eros, Catalonia, and others.
Collection Launch Recording
Research Team
- Chamarrita Farkas, María Pía Santelices, Katherine Strasser
