We offer several fun groups for children to attend that aim to help them understand and manage their emotions more effectively. The following groups target children and young people aged between 4 and 15 years.
Fun Friends (4-7 years)
The Fun FRIENDS Programme helps guide the social and emotional development of children aged 4 to 7 by using fun, play-based group activities. Fun FRIENDS teaches skills that will nurture a child’s development during these crucial early years, giving them the ability to excel and smoothly transition into school life.
Fun FRIENDS has been proven to give participants the following skills:
- Smiling and making eye contact when communicating
- Speaking with a brave and confident voice
- Talking about and understanding feelings in themselves and others (empathy development)
- Helping other people like family, peers and teachers
- Understanding their body clues, e.g. tense means stressed, butterflies means nervous
- Relaxation techniques to relax their bodies and minds in stressful situations
- Approaching groups of peers and making friends
- Trying new things, and approaches to problem solving
- Identifying negative thoughts and turning them into positive thoughts
To help children remember FRIENDS…
- Feelings (talk about your feelings and care about other people’s feelings)
- Relax (do “milkshake” breathing, have some quiet time)
- I can try! (we can all try our best)
- Encourage (step plans to happy home)
- Nurture (quality time together doing fun activities)
- Don’t forget – be brave! (practice skills everyday with friends /family)
- Stay happy
Friends for Life (8-11 years)
Friends for Life is a social skills and resilience building program that is recognised by the World Health Organisation for over 12 years of comprehensive research and as an effective means to prevent anxiety for children aged 8-11.
Anxiety is a common disorder, affecting over 20% of children in this age group. If left unattended anxiety can severely impact a child’s development which then created problems later in life. Anxiety can cause constant worry about things close to a child such as homework, attending school camp and even non-local events that appear on the news such as natural disasters or pandemics. This anxiety can detract from learning and have a severe impact on development.
Friends for Life is proven to reduce anxiety and give participants the tools they need to cope in these stressful and challenging situations. Further to anxiety treatment, Friends for Life also improves participant social skills, ability to focus, confidence, and the ability to relax and regulate emotions.
To help participants remember the FRIENDS concepts, and to being structure to the sessions we use the FRIENDS acronym.
Parents can access the Friend for Life Parents leaflet here.
Friends for Youth (12-15 years)
Friends for Youth is a programme designed for older young people and adolescents the aim of the programme is to help build emotional and social resilience.
This is a 12-week Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Group based approach for tackling depression/low mood, self-esteem issues and anxiety related difficulties.
The course is suitable for 12-15 year olds.
Dinosaur School (under 10 years)
The Dinosaur School is for children under 10 year old, it is delivered in line with school and parents and is run over 18 weeks. The dinosaur child focused curriculum has emphasis on training children in skills such as:
- Apatosaurus – Making New Friends & Learning School Rules
- Iguanodon – How to be Successful in School (Listening, Quiet Hands Up, Concentrating, Checking and Cooperating)
- Triceratops – Detecting and Understanding Feelings
- Stegosaurus – Wally Teaches Problem Solving Steps (Identifying Problems and Solutions, Finding More Solutions, Thinking of Consequences)
- Tyrannosaurus Rex – Wally Teaches Problem Solving Steps (Controlling Anger and Problem Solving)
- Allosaurus – Molly Manners Teaches How to be Friendly (Helping, Sharing, Teamwork at School and at Home)
- Brachiosaurus – Molly Explains How to Talk with Friends (Tell, Listen, Ask)
Want to join a group?
If you are a parent or carer for a child, or a young person (aged 16 and over), you can make a self-referral to this service.