Life Skills Group: Communication and

Problem Solving
Dream Catchers:

Population: Children in residential or day treatment behavioral health facility

Age: 7 14

Group Size: 4 12

Setting Considerations: Intervention should be done in a quiet location with tables and minimal distractions.

Purpose: Intervention is designed to help patients think about and identify positive and negative thoughts and ways they
can challenge those thoughts to help decrease stress and increase positive thinking.

Goals:

- Identify negative thoughts that patients have in their everyday life

- Identify positive thoughts that can challenge those reoccurring negative thoughts
- Communicate with peers and staff about negative thoughts and how those can be challenged.

Supplies:

- Dream Catcher printed on white cardstock (see below)

- Embroidery floss
- Masking tape
- Scotch tape
- Feathers

Intervention Description:

Before group:

- Print off Dream Catchers on white cardstock and poke holes along the circle in the marked places
- Cut pieces of embroidery floss (2 or 3 feet) and wrap one end with a piece of masking tape to act as a needle to
thread through the holes.

Begin by explaining that you will be talking about positive and negative thoughts. Share the Dream Catcher Legend
below:

Dream Catcher Legend:

Dream catchers come from Native American legend where they were used as talismans to protect sleeping
children from bad dreams and nightmares. The web catches the bad dreams during the night and disposes of
them when daytime comes. As for the good dreams, the feathers act as a fluffy, pillow-like ladder that allows
them to gently descend upon the sleeping person undisturbed.

Today we will be creating our own dream catchers using positive and negative thoughts.

We will start by decorating our dream catchers. Everyone will need some embroidery floss with a piece of masking tape
at one end, some feathers, and a few pieces of scotch tape. When you first start, be sure to poke your embroidery floss
from the back to the front and pull all the through until you have a little tail less than one inch. After this, secure the tail
with a small piece of scotch tape. After this, you are free to create pattern of your choosing. After you have finished your
pattern, secure the other end of the embroidery floss with another piece of scotch tape. Next you make pick three
feathers to tape on the bottom of your dream catcher. After this, write some negative thoughts to put inside of the
dream catcher and some positive thoughts that challenge those negative thoughts to go on the outside of the dream
catcher.

Group Discussion (see possible discussion questions)

Now that we have created dream catchers to catch those negative thoughts, we are going to try and use our positive
thoughts and teamwork play a challenge initiative (Dot Maze)

Possible Discussion Questions:

- What are some examples of negative thoughts you had?

o Was it hard or easy to come up with some examples?
- What are some examples of positive thoughts?
- How can those positive thoughts work to challenge the negative thoughts?
- Why is it important to challenge negative thoughts?
- What are some ways to increase your positive thoughts?
- How can we help our peers challenge those negative thoughts?

Possible Group or Individual Assignments:

- Have the kids hang the dream catcher in their room and think about more positive and negative thoughts to add
- Have the kids practice challenging negative thoughts with positive thoughts 3 times a day and journal about the
experience.

Modifications or Adaptations:

Younger kids might need more help and support for this activity. Based on the level and engagement of the group, have
them just write positive thoughts on the outside and discuss negative thoughts as a group rather than having them write
them down.
Dot Maze

Population: Children in residential or day treatment behavioral health facility

Age: 7 14

Group Size: 4 12

Setting Considerations: Intervention can be done inside or outside depending on weather. Space needs to be big enough
to lay out 16 polydots in a 4 x 4 square with about a foot between each dot.

Purpose: Intervention is designed to help patients think practice identifying negative thoughts and challenging those
with positive thoughts. Kids will also learn about asking for help from their teammates and using positive statements to
communicate effectively.

Goals:

- Identify negative self-talk statements/thoughts

- Identify importance of asking for help from peers
- Using positive statements/thoughts to effectively communication with peers
- Identifying the difference in negative thinking and looking at a situation in a positive way
- Learning from mistakes
Supplies:

- Polydots
- Printed circle pages
- Markers or pens

Intervention Description:

1. Lay out the 16 dots on the ground

2. Explain that we will take turns creating a pattern through the dots and the rest of the group will try to guess the
pattern.
a. The Rules for making a pattern:
i. You can use up to 12 dots in your pattern, but no more than 12.
ii. The dots must be connected (side-by-side or diagonal)
iii. You cannot use the same dot twice.
b. Rules for guessing the pattern:
i. A persons turn ends when they choose a wrong dot and hear a beep from the person who
created the pattern.
ii. Once one of your feet is on a dot, you cannot choose to guess a different dot.
iii. If a wrong dot is chosen the next person must start from the beginning of the pattern
3. Pair the kids up
a. Have a box of markers (two of each color)
b. Have each kid pick a marker. The kids that have the same color marker are partners.
4. Give them a few minutes to come up with a pattern
5. Choose a team to go first and have the rest of the kids try to guess their pattern.
6. Whoever guesses the pattern gets to go next.

Once the each of the pairs have had a turn with their pattern, have the kids pick up the dots and form a circle to discuss
the challenge initiative. (See Possible Discussion Questions below).

Possible Discussion Questions:

- What did we just do?

 - What was challenging/not challenging about it?
- How did you feel when you chose the wrong dot? What thoughts did you have?
o How can we challenge those negative thoughts you might have had?
- How did you feel when you chose the correct dot? What thoughts did you have?
- How did your teammates help you? How did you help your teammates?
- What were some effective ways of communicating with your peers? Did you use positive statements?
- How did this activity help us practice having positive thoughts?

Possible Group or Individual Assignments:

- Have the kids try this activity at with their family using pieces of paper and journal about the experience
- Throughout the week, have the kids come up with a list of positive self-talk statements to use during stressful
situations

Modifications or Adaptations:

Younger kids might have difficulty creating their own patter and challenging each other. It might also cause unwanted
competition and negativity among the group. Instead, have the RT create a few patterns ahead of time and challenge
the entire group to work together to figure out the maze.