Emotional Bingo for Children is ideal for counseling groups or classrooms.
During the game, students learn to recognize a variety of emotions. They are provided with opportunities to discuss their own feelings and to respond empathically to the feelings of others. Each game includes 32 bingo cards (English on one side; Spanish on the other), a poster (20×28″), tokens, call-out cards, and a helpful leader’s guide with discussion guidelines and counseling suggestions.
The ability to display empathy is integral to maintaining health relationships. Built on shared feelings and experiences, relationships can flourish only if people effectively talk, listen, and empathize with each other.
For some students, however, relating to other people’s feeling is difficult. They may not understand the idea of showing empathy and can never quite connect with another person’s joy or pain. Professionals have found that the inability to empathize is a significant and sometimes dangerous characteristic. A lack of empathy, at the very least, can inhibit strong social bonds; at the extreme, it can contribute to antisocial or aggressive behavior.
Fortunately, empathy can be learned. Emotional Bingo for Children serves just this purpose. By way of the familiar format of traditional Bingo, Emotional Bingo creates a context in which one player is rewarded for sharing a personal anecdote while other players are similarly rewarded for offering empathic response.