Using Videos and Books in Therapy

There is very little that I can't teach with a book or a video! Here I wanted to explain how I use both of them to teach social communication, language, and executive function skills. There are some skills that are only for books or for videos, but by and large the tools for one typically work for the other as well.

How I Use Books & Videos in My Sessions

Books and videos offer such rich, engaging material that you can work with. The way I conduct therapy is different for every single client, but almost all of them have some amount of books or videos incorporated into our sessions because they're just so flexible and high interest.

I follow my clients' leads so I really never know where a session will go until we're in it. However, if I had to give an average session for one of my clients working on higher level language, social communication, or executive function it would probably look something like this.

1. Check in

2. Introduction of new concept or activity - usually this is about fifteen minutes and involves some kind of graphic organizer.

3. Read part of a book, incorporating the concept and other goals into our reading. Typically I'm pulling some sort of art or visual display of information into this.

4. Watch a video for the last fifteen minutes, again pulling in the concept and other goals as we watch.

That's it! As you can see, books and videos are the backbone of many of my sessions. Most goals can be covered within this session structure.

What Goals Can You Address Through Videos and Books?

Like I said, I can make most anything work, but here are some examples of the many goals I work on as we watch/read. Remember, we've generally reviewed the concept first before we do this.

I've incorporated the following types of goals into movie watching or reading picture books/graphic novels:

- Perspective taking (both for thoughts/feelings and for information sharing)

- Interpersonal safety skills

- Making predictions and inferences

- Emotional regulation (coming up with ideas on how the characters can feel better when they're upset)

- Identifying when boundaries are broken and what the character should do

- Choosing a reflexive question ("what's my plan", "how long will this take?", etc) to ask the character, or answering one for them

- Giving points both for and against a given opinion

- Recalling what happened earlier in the video or book

- Giving the name for an emotion a character is feeling or stating the clues that they're feeling that way

- Describing something from the movie so that I can tell what they're describing without them naming it

- Giving a narrative related to what was happening in the book/video

Some goals are best done with reading specifically.

- Self-monitoring skills - catching their own mistakes as they read, or if they need something to build on first, catching my purposeful mistakes

- Trying out multiple ways to sound out a word (yes, this requires executive function!)

- Determining word meaning from context - this is something that *can* be worked on while watching videos, but I've found that the difficulty of remembering what's been said gets in the way when listening to a video, so I prefer to introduce it while reading

I'll be putting up a goal inspiration page later, but for now hopefully this will give you some ideas!

How I Choose Books & Movies

Unless there's a compelling reason to do otherwise, I prefer to have our books and movies be about human characters in the real world (no magic or alien attacks or anything, just life). I find it seems to help our learning generalize better, plus it allows me to target more goals. If we're watching a movie or show, I want it to be live action, not animated, for the same reason. I'll tweak this sometimes, like for a child who isn't interested in much beyond Percy Jackson, but I try to stick to those. Generally with reading I go for something that has pictures, like a graphic novel. Again, it lets me address additional goals, plus it usually increases interest.

This is just personal preference, but I also like to slip in a bit of other education at the same time. If we're going to be consuming media anyways, why not have a theme that addresses something my kid is struggling with or which will support their academics?

I've developed a list of book and movie/video ideas to choose from with my kids that fit these criteria. I haven't actually read or watched all of these myself yet! And some have themes relating to historically mistreated groups that you'll definitely need to talk about with the kids as you go. But either I've watched them and thought they were good with my kids or I've researched them and they seemed good.

My Book List

These are some examples of books that we've either read or I've got on my "to read" list.

Engaging Reads that Goals Can Be Incorporated Into:

Graphic Novels:

Historical Tie-Ins:

The "I Survived" series

"Girls Survive" series

They Called Us Enemy

Catherine's Way

A Bag of Marbles

Little White Duck: A Childhood in China

Others:

Baby-Sitter's Little Sister

Julie and the Blue Guitar (a little history, but not much)

Picture Books:

Laura Ingalls Wilder picture books

Early Reader: Clara and the Bookwagon

Chapter Books: (Still have some pictures)

American Girl series

Laura Ingalls Wilder books - for advanced readers you can do the original series, but for beginners there is a series specifically called the "chapter book" version

You Choose: Prehistoric Survival series

This or That? History Edition series - good for working on seeing both sides

Stone Arch Books has a "Historical Fiction" series which are half graphic novel and half text, alternating.

Picture Books with Specific Lessons

Picture Books About Bullying

Bully B.E.A.N.S.

Spaghetti in a Hotdog Bun

Willow Finds a Way

Picture Books About Emotions

The Awfulizer

The "Ninja" series by Mary Ninh

"A Little Spot" series

"When Mistakes Make You Quake" (perfectionism kids' workbook)

Self Advocacy Picture Book

A Voice Like Yours

I Can Say No

Safety Picture Book

My Body, My Bubble, My Boundaries (it's not very well made, but I really liked some of the ways it talked about boundaries)

My Video List

Engaging Videos that Goals Can Be Incorporated Into:

This is a list of movies and TV shows that are live action, engaging, and relatively kid safe. Please look into them before you start watching one. Many of these include themes of racism, sexism, ableism, and general prejudice, particularly those that are set in the past, as well as some safety problems. I use those as jumping off points to discuss those issues with the kids myself, because our kids will see these in real life, but I know not everyone will feel comfortable doing so. I always talk to parents about the videos that we're watching, because I want to make sure they're okay with them, but so far everyone has been fine with these. I provided the Common Sense age rating for the movies I have the ratings for and extra content warnings for violence or swearing if I know it's present, but my division of younger and older children safety is subjective and each child will also be different, too.

Live Action TV Shows Safer for Younger Children

Wishbone series (old PBS kids series, free on YouTube currently)
The Saddle Club (currently included with Prime)
Just Add Magic (currently included with Prime)

Live Action Movies Safer For Younger Children:

Unsinkable (age 10+)
Rescued by Ruby (age 8+)
You Wish! (age 8+)
We Are the Radical Monarchs (age 9+)
Ruby Bridges (age 10+)
The Simone Biles Story: Courage to Soar (age 9+)
Harry & Snowman (age 10+)
Wonder (age 10+)
Hidden Figures (age 10+)
Queen of Katwe (age 10+)
No Ordinary Hero: The SuperDeafy Movie (age 7+)
Kindness Is Contagious (age 9+)
Dolphin Tale (age 7+)
Soul Surfer (age 10+...some violence at the beginning with her injury, skip if you have kids sensitive to that)
Secretariat (age 8+)
Young Mr. Lincoln (age 10+)
Pollyanna (age 6+)
The Miracle Worker (age 10+ - use caution with kids with trauma histories with adult mistreatment)
And the Children Shall Lead (age 9+)
Hoosiers (age 9+)
Fly Away Home (age 8+... There is one instance of the s word about 1 hr 25 minutes in)
Anne of Green Gables (age 7+) - also the two sequels; all three are free with ads on Plex
The Color of Friendship (age 9+)
Let It Shine (age 7+)
Dashing Through the Snow (age 8+)
Safety (age 11+, they say the word "damn")
Little Women (there are several versions, one is free with ads on Plex)
Gracie's Choice
Where the Red Fern Grows
Galileo: On the Shoulders of Giants
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
Leonardo : A Dream of Flight
Marie Curie: More than Meets the Eye
The Elephant Whisperers
Hiroshima Maiden (free copy currently on YouTube - word "damn" at 49 minutes - excellent for discussing peer pressure!)
Searching for Bobby Fisher
Under the Blood Red Sun

Live Action Movies with Content for Older Kids:

War Games (age 11+, frequent swearing)
The Watsons Go to Birmingham (age 12+ high rating is because of the church bombing at the end - the only actual evidence of death you really see is a girl's foot poking out from under rubble, but there is screaming and you're told some kids died)
Apollo 13 (age 12+, significant swearing)
Concussion (age 13+)
Big Eyes (age 13+)
Whale Rider (ages 10+ is their rating but I put this in the older kids category because of the scene where the boys are being trained to fight. Almost all the movie is appropriate, but in this scene the trainer tells the boys if they don't follow his directions their "d***s will fall off". Just that line is enough to make it older kids only, although you can mute when it gets to that point if you want. There's also one instance of the word sh*t.)
Belle (age 11+)
42 (age 11+)
Sounder (1972 or 2003 age 12+, currently free on Plex)
October Sky (age 10+, word "sh*t" present several times)
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (12+, sprinkling of swearing - damn, bullsh*t, village chief gets beaten)
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (good subject but quite slow pace)
Rabbit Proof Fence (the movie itself ends on a hopeful note - the epilogue with how real life turned out after the scene the movie ended at is very sad)
Bridge to Terabithia (if you think your child can handle the death of one of the main characters)
Gandhi
Gettysburg - some language, plus it's probably too long for younger kids
Mr Holland's Opus - mild swearing, Holland is shown having a crush on another woman despite being married
The Tuskegee Airmen (PG13)

YouTube Videos with Specific Lessons

Explaining the Brain:

Neurodiversity for Children (by Differing Minds)

Explaining Sensory Processing:

School House Rock - The Nervous System - You'll have to briefly tell them what a telegram is, but I like how it shows a message going from the body to the brain and the brain interpreting it
Senses and the Brain Video Lesson for Kids (by GenerationGenius) - I actually just use the video for the visual of the way signals travel through the body, the actual explanation they're giving is usually too complicated for my kids.
Journey of Sound to the Brain (by NIH) - I liked how this showed the interplay between the message from the outside and how it's trying to get to the brain. It's also good perspective taking to help kids understand why people might not hear them if they aren't speaking loudly enough - I like to explain it as having to be loud enough for the sound to make the person's ear drums move.
What is Sensory Processing? (by Differing Minds) - If you have to pick just one video to show, I would use this one, because somehow it gets so much across in just 2 minutes!
Sensory Minis (by Sue Allen)

Safety