Case Study Location: Isle of Man, Primary School

Author: Caitlin D, Year 6 Teacher

Subjects: Year 1 through Year 6 Students

Product Used: Happy Heads Card Game

‍

Introduction

In today’s educational landscape, emotional development is as crucial as academic success. Caitlin Dunn, a Year 6 teacher from the Isle of Man, has been utilising Book of Beasties’ Happy Heads Card Game during her Bridge sessions to support children’s emotional intelligence and resilience.

Spanning across year groups from Year 1 to Year 6, the use of Book of Beasties has led to profound engagement from students, who not only relate to the game’s characters but also apply the learning objectives and emotional techniques in their daily lives.

This case study explores the impact of this intervention, analysing the role of play in emotional learning and referencing research that underscores the importance of socio-emotional development in children.

‍

The Challenge

Emotional literacy can be a difficult area to address within the traditional classroom setting, where time is often devoted to academic subjects. However, developing skills like emotional regulation, empathy, and self-awareness is crucial for young learners to thrive in both school and life. Caitlin Dunn sought a way to incorporate emotional learning in a fun, engaging manner that would resonate with her students across varying ages and developmental stages. The Happy Heads Card Game, with its character and play-based approach to emotional exploration, presented a valuable tool for this purpose.

‍

Intervention: Using Book of Beasties to Teach Emotional Techniques

Book of Beasties’ Happy Heads Card Game focuses on helping children understand and manage their emotions by assisting the fictional “Beasties” through various challenges. In particular, Caitlin focused her sessions on two characters, Akky and Bronze Child, allowing her students to relate to the specific emotional challenges these characters represented.

To detail these Beasties’ characteristics:

Akky: Akky feels rather bad about himself. He has low self-esteem and cannot bring himself to stand up straight, which makes him feel worse.

Bronze Child: Bronze Child’s head is stuck in a big, heavy brass ball. It causes him a lot of stress as he struggles to move and makes it hard for him to concentrate.

‍

Through interactive gameplay, students learned emotional regulation techniques, such as breathing exercises, confidence building and reflective thinking. The characters’ stories provided a relatable narrative that allowed students to explore their own emotions in a playful yet meaningful way. Crucially, the game provided a structured platform where emotional learning could be embedded into routine classroom sessions without feeling forced or abstract.

‍

Observations and Impact

Caitlin’s observations over the course of the half-term sessions demonstrated several key outcomes:

• Engagement Across Year Groups: One of the standout aspects of using Book of Beasties was the consistent engagement across all year groups, from Year 1 to Year 6. The game’s adaptability ensured that younger students could engage with the simpler aspects of the narrative, while older students could explore more complex emotional themes.

• Retention of Learning Objectives: During follow-up sessions, Caitlin was impressed by how well the children remembered both the characters and the emotional techniques they had learned. This retention was especially noteworthy in a play-based learning environment, where concepts are taught indirectly through storytelling and games.

Research into play-based learning supports these findings, suggesting that children are more likely to retain and apply lessons learned through engaging, interactive methods as opposed to direct instruction (Pyle & Danniels, 2017).

• Relating to Personal Experiences: Beyond retaining the emotional techniques, Caitlin observed that her students began relating their own experiences to the Book of Beasties characters. This personal connection demonstrates a deeper level of emotional understanding, where students are not just absorbing knowledge but applying it in real-life contexts.

This is particularly significant as studies indicate that children’s ability to relate emotional concepts to their own lives enhances emotional intelligence and resilience (Denham et al., 2012).

• Empathy Development: By focusing on the struggles of characters like Akky and Bronze Child, students began to develop greater empathy, an essential component of socio-emotional development. Understanding the characters’ feelings encouraged the students to reflect on how others might feel in similar situations.

According to Goleman (1995), empathy is one of the foundational elements of emotional intelligence, which can contribute to positive social relationships and better academic outcomes.

‍

Analysis of the Role of Play in Emotional Learning

The success of the Book of Beasties game in Caitlin’s classroom can be attributed largely to its play-based approach. Play, particularly structured play with a clear emotional learning objective, has long been recognised as a powerful tool for child development.

1. Emotional Expression through Play: Play creates a safe and non-threatening environment where children can explore difficult emotions. By guiding the beasties through their emotional challenges, students were able to project their own feelings onto the characters, creating a level of emotional distance that made it easier to express themselves. This aligns with the findings of Russ (2004), who asserts that pretend play allows children to experiment with emotions and scenarios in a low-risk way.
   
   
2. Storytelling as a Teaching Tool: Storytelling is a core element of Book of Beasties, and Caitlin’s use of this method allowed her students to engage deeply with emotional concepts. Stories provide context and meaning, which are essential for retaining information and applying it to real-world situations. As noted by Bruner (1996), narratives are particularly effective in helping children make sense of complex emotional ideas because they present abstract concepts in a concrete and understandable way.
   
   
3. Peer Learning and Emotional Regulation: Another key observation from Caitlin’s sessions was the social aspect of the game. Children not only learned emotional techniques for themselves but also supported one another in their learning. Research into social learning theory (Bandura, 1977) suggests that children often model behaviours and emotional responses from their peers. The collaborative nature of Book of Beasties fostered this peer-to-peer learning, enabling students to see emotional regulation in action.

‍

Caitlin Dunn’s use of Book of Beasties in her Bridge sessions demonstrates the profound impact that play-based learning can have on children’s emotional development. The game’s focus on storytelling, character-driven challenges, and interactive play successfully engaged students across a wide age range, promoting the retention of emotional techniques and helping children relate their own experiences to the characters’ journeys. The outcome was not only greater emotional intelligence but also the development of empathy and a deeper understanding of how to manage personal emotions.

By integrating games like Book of Beasties into the classroom, educators can offer a more holistic learning environment where emotional development is given as much importance as academic learning. As Caitlin’s experience shows, playful approaches to emotional education can lead to lasting benefits for children, providing them with the tools they need to navigate the complexities of their emotional world.

‍

Recommendations:

Given the success in this case, it is recommended that teachers consider implementing Book of Beasties or similar play-based tools into their curriculum to support emotional development. Regular sessions that focus on emotional regulation techniques, empathy, and social learning can contribute to a positive classroom culture where children feel safe to express their feelings and support one another.

‍

References:

• Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

• Bruner, J. (1996). The Culture of Education. Harvard University Press.

• Denham, S. A., Bassett, H. H., & Zinsser, K. (2012). Early childhood teachers as socialisers of young children’s emotional competence. Early Childhood Education Journal, 40(3), 137-143.

• Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. Bantam Books.

• Pyle, A., & Danniels, E. (2017). A continuum of play-based learning: The role of the teacher in play-based pedagogy and the fear of hijacking play. Early Education and Development, 28(3), 274-289.

• Russ, S. W. (2004). Play in Child Development and Psychotherapy: Toward Empirically Supported Practice. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

‍