Linda Cawley

The Trick with Sticks: Demystifying Friendships and Bonds Linda Cawley

The Trick with Sticks is an uplifting story about self-worth, acceptance, happiness, building confidence and that it is ok to be different, but most of all, it is a story that helps demystify friendships and the formation of bonds."The Trick with Sticks" is just one strategy to help children with friendships and bonds by creating a framework to understand and discuss social interactions. Friendships are a natural development process for most children, but there are some who find the development of friendships tricky. What draws children together? What keeps them together? What can parents, teachers or carers do to help children develop these friendships? What are these bonds and how can they be explained? There are many opportunities throughout the story for meaningful conversations, and the chance to reflect on the things that are happening in your child's life. This is so empowering for children who may be going through a tough time making friends or for a range of challenges such as bullying, self-esteem, self-worth, unhappiness, low confidence and acceptance of themselves and others. This is highly recommended for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), as they can really struggle with friendships and can often miss social cues or miss opportunities to connect or they can make the same mistakes again and again. In addition to this, neuro-typical children often miss the clues on how to be inclusive and supportive of some of their friends and this concept will empower everyone.