The Whats Up flipbook is a tool designed to promote emotional awareness and help a child communicate their needs to an adult.
The mix-and-match flipbook is the brain child of Developmental Psychologist Sandhya Menon and is proudly produced locally - from thought, creation, illustration and print - in the Inner Western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. The flipbook features colourful design and illustrations on 8 What's Up and 8 I Need pages, created by local graphic designer Kushla Ross.
What’s Up pages present an opportunity to describe a difficult situation, whilst I Need Pages support children to find possible solutions and let an adult know. Children can then mix-and-match between the two. If they have not found something that describes how they are feeling, children can use reusable pages at the back to draw their own feelings and what they need.
Having a visual resource reduces cognitive load and demands on children, especially for those who find verbal communication hard when anxious. It promotes problem-solving skills as when confronted with a problem, the next logical solution is knowing we can do something about it. Illustrations and support are available on the 'flip' (ha ha, we couldn't resist!) side to help guide adults in why a child might use a particular card.
Samples of What’s Up cards:
This is too hard
It’s too noisy
Someone was mean
I wasn’t ready to do something yet
Sample of I need cards:
More time to think and do this
Someone to sit with me quietly
Someone to talk to me and listen to my story
A quiet space away
This flip chart fits perfectly on school desks, and is easy to pop into a bag for travel friendliness.
An excellent resource for classrooms and the home environment alike!