When My Worries Get Too Big!: A Relaxation Book for Children Who Live With Anxiety

by Kari Dunn Buron

This book replaces "When My Autism Gets Too Big."

Genres: Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Childrens, Nonfiction, Parenting, Picture Books, Education, Disability

44 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Kari Dunn Buron is an autism educational specialist who has worked with children and young adults on the autism spectrum for more than 25 years. Kari was one of the founding members of the Minnesota Autism Project and developed the ASD certificate program for educators at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. Kari currently teaches in the Hamline program and coordinates a summer camp for teens with Asperger Syndrome. She is the author of When My Worries Get Too Big! A Relaxation Book for Children Who Live with Anxiety and the co-author of The Incredible 5-Point Scale: Assisting Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders in Understanding Social Interactions and Controlling Their Emotional Responses and A 5 Is Against the Law! Social Boundaries: Straight Up! An honest guide for teens and young adults

Reviews

[Ndengo Bwanga · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for parents and teachers to read for their children. Engaging to read this book, children will learn and develop their own self calming strategies. This book is also a helpful tool that gives young children an opportunity to explore their own feelings with parents or teachers as they react to many situations in their lives. The strategies illustrated by the author in this book, will help children to relax and ready to focus on their work.

[Madison · Rating 5 out of 5]

When My Worries Get Too Big is a fun approach for kids with anxiety to get support. This book explains how to make children who suffer from anxiety feel more at peace. I admire how there are places in the book where kids may take what's being said and relate their own emotions to it. There are places in the book where students can write how they're feeling or rate their degree of stress based on the information provided. This book could be extremely useful in the classroom for children who suffer from high levels of anxiety and stress. It might be useful for a teacher to figure out what the student is feeling and how to deal with it. This book guides children with extreme anxiety through the process of evaluating their feelings and determining their level of anxiety. It then instructs children on how to relax when they sense themselves about to lose control. I particularly liked how this book included some helpful hints and activities for teachers and parents working with anxious children. ". When reading this book to my students I would be sure to ask, "What are some strategies or things that help you cope with big and overwhelming feelings?"

[Lannette Boateng · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a boy who worries a lot but is also great at many things. He knows what he is excellent at because those things are calming. Things that worry him are no recess, or he does not know what is happening next. This is an excellent book because it reminds you that children face anxiety, not only adults. It also gives you the tools to help a highly anxious child at that moment. It also helps the child realize what makes them happy or anxious. This book is for teachers, and I recommend it to parents because it explains why students get anxious and tells them how to solve the issue in the letter at the beginning of the book. It also includes pages in the back to help students and their teachers or parents identify their feelings and associate them with a number. This book would be great for Pre-K or Kindergarten age because that is the age that children start to learn to regulate their emotions.

[Ashleigh Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book talks about how young children deal with anxiety and how to navigate life with anxiety. Anxiety is a huge disability that is not talked about enough and is usually just blown off as being worrisome or something else. I really like how this book brings more light to this disability and talks about ways that children and their parents/teachers can figure out calming techniques for that child. I would absolutely recommend this book to parents and teachers because sometimes anxiety can be more hidden and this book can help you realize that maybe you're child is struggling with it and anxiety can be very tough to navigate life with. This book would be good to read to a 5 year old and up. I think this book can be very beneficial.

[Kayleigh Muligan · Rating 4 out of 5]

When My Worries Get Too Big is an interactive way to help kids who live with anxiety. This book provides ways to help kids who struggle with anxiety feel at ease. I love how within the book there are places that children can take what is being said and incorporate their own feelings into it. I gave this book a 4 star rating because I loved how informational it was. With the information given, there are also sections in the book where students can write how they're feeling or rate their level of stress. This book could be very beneficial in the classroom to students who deal with high anxiety and stress. It could help a teacher figure out what they are feeling and how to handle it.

[Lauren Krebs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helps walk kids who struggling with severe anxiety through the process of identifying their feelings and what level they are at. It then gives some relaxation techniques for kids to use when they feel themselves about to lose control. I also LOVED how this book provided some tips and activities teachers and parents can use when working with a child who has anxiety. I would read this book aloud to my students and ask my students,"What are some things that you do to cope with your big feelings?" Also I think this book is mostly geared towards 3-8 year olds, however I think everyone can benefit from the relaxation techniques in this book.

[Sami Westrick]

This book explains what it is like for students to deal with anxiety. Showing how teachers and parents can help their students. Showing how to relax and be helpful to their students at home and at school. Really a good demonstration to students with or without anxiety to help prevent this, and ways to help. I would personally say there is not much literary devices because it is more informational. With it being informational, I would rate it a 2 because it is great for parents and teachers to learn how they can help, but not as much for the students.

[Jade · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book for children who may suffer from extreme anxiety. I struggle with extreme anxiety myself and I believe this book helps children how to relax, keep calm and control they're breathing. I also, love this book because it shows that everyone worries, but there are ways to relieve your own stress. I would definitely introduce this book to my classroom and use this book as a great resource to help children relax and learn how to control their emotions.

[Katie Louwers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book shows what it is like for students living with anxiety. This book explains how teachers and parents can help their students. It gives students tips for how to relax. A good book for students with or without anxiety to help when feeling nervous. This book is more of a informational book. So many students struggle with anxiety and sometimes they don't even know it. This book will help inform them on ways they can succeed.

[Esther · Rating 5 out of 5]

I use this book a lot with parents who have children with anxiety in my professional life. I recommend this to parents that I know in my personal life, as well. It does a great job of explaining that worrying is okay to experience and how to identify what is causing your worry. It helps children learn tips to overcome worry, as well.

[Ashley Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

The basic idea here is to help kids visualize how their body feels when it is calm. What kind of things help you feel calm, how does it feel in your body. Then, how does your body feel when you are worried? What are some strategies you can use? Visualize those strategies. It's built like a social story, but those usually work better when they're personalized.

[Candice · Rating 3 out of 5]

It teaches kids how to cope and relax with anxiety. It has a great story behind it and it comes with a great collection of how to cope with other things. The illustrations are kid-friendly and very helpful. I give this book a 3 because it is teacher-parent based too.

[Susie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great resource, with some fab ideas, will have to change some of the language to use in U.K. (It's American).

[Lindsay Sorensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder so I can relate to this.

[Tweedledum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have lost track of the number of times I have recommended this simple but excellent book since it was re-issued in 2013.

[Alissa Peanasky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was created using the 5 point scale - so it's perfect for any classrooms utilizing that curriculum. It also has tips in the front for educators to create a lesson surrounding this book.

[Rebecka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book for children with anxiety

[Damien A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good workbook for autistic children

[Johanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is cute little book that helps children with anxiety learn ways they can self-soothe and manage their emotions. It used to be targeted at children with Autism, but I like that it has a broader title to include anxiety outside of Autism as well. I have anxiety myself, and my oldest displays behaviour patterns and anxiety attacks not unlike mine. This was recommended by a child psychologist for us to check out, and I'm quite liking it. Beautiful book, glossy page, simple easy to understand sentences, and pages for the child to personalize. I borrowed it from the library, but I think I'll be ordering a copy, so A can keep, write in, and we can go back to it again again, perhaps with it becoming our "calm down" tool.

[Marcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually a workbook for children 5 to 9 with Autism, to review and complete with an adult. The books offers steps (including physical exercises) to attempt when Autism symptoms begin to get out of control. I think it would be a good option for teachers, therapists and parents to use with children with Autism. It's best to buy the book and use pencil to complete the pages so they can be updated when the child feels like changing their input. I was surprised the library book I have from the library was not written in.

A similar book, When My Worries Get Too Big, has recently been published as well, for children with anxiety.

[Jostalady · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was recommended to me by the developmental behavioral psychologist who recently diagnosed my 6 year old with anxiety disorder. She read this with me and we had the best conversations we have had in weeks! Usually she doesn't want to read a book with me, but this was a big hit that opened her up and suddenly I was hearing from her feelings and experiences that I had never heard her talk about before! I also found out that my 8 year old with autism, who also exhibits some anxiety, has been using this book in group therapy at school and she was excited to talk to us about it too so we read it again. Highly useful for kids (and their adults) with anxiety.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Goodness knows why this book has sat on my shelf for so long since I bought it from a suggested reading list. It's not like we don't do meltdowns in this house. However, I am not really the target audience being a parent and professional health educator in relaxation. It's a workbook and as such intended to be worked through by the individual with anxiety. My suspicion based on many years of advocating long breaths out is that it won't quite cut the mustard, and like many other well-meaning strategies that seek to involve the person, there's something missing somehow.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would like to purchase a copy of this to use with my son,as the copy I read was from the library, but I'm not sure how I feel about the terminology "when my autism gets too big," because that implies that all of my son's quirks that might lead him to anxiety or meltdowns are negative, and they're not. Certain elements that lead to meltdown are actually very -positive- things when channeled properly using the right tools. So. I don't know. If you could tweak this to "when my feelings get too big" or "when my anxiety gets too big" or something like that, it would be perfect. <3

[Gina Venugopal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a fantastic way to help children with calming strategies within a beautifully illustrated way. This book would be ideal for children with autism to read with their parents, and has a great teaching section to help parents also. The book aims to help the child to develop their own calming strategies and can help chidlren with anxiety as well as social and emotional difficulties. I find the target audiece to be wide with children and adults alike in an engaging and easy to understand approach to the format.

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is geared towards children with autism and offers helpful scale of 1 to 5 relating to when the children are feeling stressed. offers helpful suggestions for deep breathing, counting, etc.

[Becky Agnew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. It is very helpful to all my students. It helps them realize that their reaction to certain scenarios have to match the correct problem. This book works well with The Zones of Self Regulation.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fantastic book to read with children who are working through anxiety! Very simple, easy to understand language, mixed with a few easy activities/strategies to try. I will be using this with my small counseling group of elementary students.

[Mindy Everett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I use this book A LOT with the elementary kids with anxiety. Also great to use with Zones of Regulation and Social Thinking.

[Dr.tia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book.

[Deb Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this workbook about worries. It is an interactive tool to help children cope with their fears. Love it.