Body awareness is a key foundation of consent. We Listen to Our Bodies gives children a vocabulary to understand and communicate their feelings, develop personal boundaries, and build their social and emotional skills.
Through body awareness and recognising how emotions physically manifest, young children can listen to their bodies for clues about how they’re feeling. Their bodies might feel shaky when worried or like one big sigh when calm and relaxed. By recognising that physical sensations are trying to communicate something, children can understand when they feel unsafe, calm, or in need of healthy touch.
We Listen to Our Bodies follows Deja and her preschool classmates as they learn to build emotional self-awareness by listening to the physical cues of their bodies. Using the book as a read-aloud, educators and families can model the language Deja’s teachers use to support children as they learn body awareness. The author, who hosts workshops and training on teaching consent for families and early childhood educators around the country, offers additional activities in the back of the book.
Digital content includes a song from Peaceful Schools with downloadable MP3 files and sheet music.
"We Listen to Our Bodies is the book parents have been begging for to help us articulate to our curious littles how to connect with their bodies and put words to what they are feeling. As the parent of both a child with extra needs and a neurotypical child, this book is perfect for both levels of understanding. With kind and gentle authorship and beautifully inclusive illustrations, Lydia and Isabel help parents and children see themselves within these pages. Whether you are a parent, an educator, or someone who recognizes how desperately our kids deserve to understand their bodies, their feelings, and their mental well-being, you won't regret adding this beautiful book to your collection!"
- Brynn Burger, Speaker, educational resource creator, and parenting coach