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New emotion cards to help children explore feelings
Posted 13 Jul 2022
Act Belong Commit in partnership with DADAA, an arts and disability organisation, today launched a set of emotion cards designed to encourage children to explore and reflect upon their feelings and help them identify and understand their emotions.
The cards were illustrated by DADAA participant Amber Clark a talented digital artist who has beautifully portrayed a range of emotions via the character of a ring tail possum.
DADAA receives annual funding from Healthway for its Studio and Workshop Program, which supports individual artists’ skills development, leading to a greater sense of everyday wellbeing and professional careers in the arts. Through its partnership with Healthway, DADAA promotes the Act Belong Commit message.
Healthway CEO Ralph Addis, said Healthway is proud to support this successful program, which is contributing to the health and wellbeing of people living with a disability.
“This partnership, which has more than 300 weekly participants, offers a range of activities that aim to create good mental health through art and increase participation in cultural programs,” he said.
Amber’s art mentor at DADAA Wren Richards said the emotion cards project provided a unique opportunity for Amber to work on something quite complex making use of her talented cartoonist skills.
“Amber was confident and excited by the prospect of creating something so useful for many people. Amber not only designed but was also involved in all communication around the development process of the cards – handling herself very well in a professional commission,” she said.
Amber Clark (front) working alongside DADAA mentor Wren Richards
The resulting set of 12 emotion cards portray a range of feelings and allows community groups and school classrooms to explore the feelings using a number of suggested activities. The emotion cards were developed with the assistance of Curtin University’s Aussie Optimism, a school-based emotional and mental resilience program.
Aussie Optimism provided advice and support around emotions familiar to different age ranges and the importance of identifying and understanding our feelings.
Act Belong Commit Campaign Manager Meg Clarey said the cards were not intended to be used as therapy cards but rather as visual prompts to allow groups to explore feelings using a range of activity ideas presented within the card packs. More information can be found here.
The emotion card sets are being offered as a new resource for schools partnering Act Belong Commit through the Mentally Healthy Schools program. If you would like to know more about this program and how you can involved, please contact us.