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The players continue along the maze in this manner: by dicing and moving along the stepping-stones, drawing a card that
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The journey through the maze will guide the players over bridges, through water, alongside animals and over hills. However,
matches the colour of the stone on which they have landed.
there are tricks and dead-ends along the way, and the players might have to re-route their journey to reach the end of the
maze. The "End" board, the middle towards the top of the board, signifies the end of the maze journey. However, the players
need to reach "The End" by dicing and moving along the stones.
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On the board, there are also escape places, namely "Escape Rock" and "Escape Bay". These places have been designed as
escape routes for the players, as some children might experience difficulty in working through their feelings and experiences,
and they may need to escape from the discomfort about sharing often painful and personal information. Hence, the blue
stepping-stones relate to the "Escape cards" and the prompts on these cards might instruct that the player go to the "Escape
Rock" and draw an "Escape card". Once the player has gone to the prescribed "Escape Space", he or she must then draw
another card, answer the prompt and continue from there along the stepping-stones towards the end of the maze.
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Players can have the option of choosing to exit the maze by going to an "Escape Place" on the board, if they feel the need to
do so. This can be introduced at the facilitator's discretion.
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The facilitator must allow for the process of the game to be flexible and must be aware of the player's level of comfort
throughout.
The intention of the game is that it is the child's journey, and hence the facilitator must not push the child to answer any questions
that the child seems to resist.
Rather, it is important for the facilitator to acknowledge and normalise for the child, the difficulty in talking about such issues, and
must allow the child permission to not answer.
Should this perpetuate (continue), the facilitator can then reflect on the observed process and this will assist in providing the facilitator
with insight into how the child is managing his or her situation, i.e. the difficulties, issues and other problematic areas.
Climbing up the Tree exercise
BACKGROUND FOR THE FACILITATOR
The facilitator should be aware of the various ways in which children battle to identify and consequently, express their emotions. By
familiarising oneself with the various ways in which children do express emotions is important. Reassure children that we all feel these
emotions from time to time but we do not have to go through them alone. Help them to think of people to whom they can talk to
(i.e., they can speak to a parent, friend, family member, teacher, etc.).
ASSESSMENT
Today the session concentrated on emotions people experience from time to time. The children learnt more about identifying emotions
in themselves, and a little about others' emotions. They discussed the various situations that can make them feel that way and they
looked at how different situations may make others feel differently. They also learnt who they could talk to or where they could go
to when they feel different emotions. Do the children understand these concepts and will they be able to apply them practically in
their lives?
HOMEWORK
Your mother will give you your homework. Don't forget to ask her about your homework!
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Intervention Programme for the ENHANCEMENT OF CHILDREN'S RESILIENCE
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