ABSTRACT

Application of Kids’ Skills to dealing with a child’s nightmares.

Hooshmand Ebrahimi, M.A. 
Email: persiankidsskills@yahoo.com

Hooshmand Ebrahimi is M.A. from Shiraz University, Shiraz-Iran. He is a counselor at the Shiraz Education Counseling Center and studying children’s nightmares. His proposal titled as Treatment of children’s nightmares from a RT/CT perspective has been accepted at 2002 WGI Conference in San Antonio-Texas. He is the first officially accepted Kids’ Skills instructor in Asia from the Helsinki Brief Therapy Institute.

Summary of Presentation

Describes "Kids’ Skills" as a solution-focused method for helping five-to-ten-year old children overcome problems. The case of a ten-year old boy with nightmares is reported. Applies the tasks of "Kids’ Skills" to dealing with his nightmares.

Learning Objectives.

• To describe Kids’ Skills as a fun way of solving children’s problems.
• To understand the tasks of Kids’ Skills.
• To apply Kids’ Skills to dealing with a child’s nightmares.

Evaluation questions:

• How does Kids’ Skills help a child to learn skill in correspondence with the problem?
• What are the tasks of Kids’ Skills?
• How can Kids’ Skills be applied as an educational model to dealing with a child’s nightmares?

Abstract 

Kids’ Skills is a problem solving method based on solution-focused psychology. It has been developed for helping five to ten year old children overcome problems. At the heart of Kids’ skills is the notion that in most cases children’s problems can be seen as skills that the child needs to learn. This proposal applies the systematic tasks of Kids’ Skills to dealing with a ten year old boy’s nightmares. The common theme of his nightmares is the being chased and clinical evidences show that he has no organic / functional disorders. Dr. A. Siegel’s model for nightmare remedy is used within the tasks of Kids’ Skills.

Problem into skill: The process of problem solving starts with discussing the child‘s parents in the absence of the child. Then, his problem (having a bad dream) is converted into a skill (having a pleasant dream). The boy’s parents are encouraged to reassure their son after waking up from a nightmare.

Agreeing on the skill: An agreement is negotiated with the child that he needs to learn the rescription of his bad dream by creating a new ending for the nightmare.

Benefits: The benefits of learning the skill are examined and listed with child: Overcoming his fears, affecting his health as well as his academic achievement.

Nickname: The child invents a nickname for the skill to be learned. The nickname that boy gives to this skill is "Happy sleeper". Happy sleeper is a cartoon protagonist which can sleep easily everywhere.

Power creature: The child chooses Rostam as a power creature to help him to learn. Rostam can be the protector of him against all chasers in his nightmares because Rostam is considered in Persian culture as a mythical hero like Hercules.

Supporters: The child invites his parents, one of his friends as well as the coach of school football team to be his supporters.

Faith in success: Reasons for believing that the child can learn the skill are examined with the child. There are three reasons to believe that he can learn: a) He wants to learn, b) He has chosen the art and drama group as an extra curricular activity and, c) The coach of school football team believes in his ability so that he has learned the difficult football techniques.

Planning a celebration: The way in which the achievement of the skill will be celebrated is discussed with the child. He is interested in a party in which his peer group can attend and eat the ball macaroni, a special macaroni like a football.

Showing: The child is given an opportunity to demonstrate how he will act when he has achieved the skill. Firstly, he describes one of his nightmares and starts to write a happy ending for the dream. Rostam is the protector of him in his new ending of dream. Secondly, he shows his imagination dramatically.

Going public: The child prepares a poster with his name, a picture of Rostam and the name of skill. The poster is placed on the wall of his room for supporters to see.

Training: The boy is encouraged to repeat a bad dream which he has seen and its solutions in various ending. The rehearsal helps him to achieve a sense of mastery.

Setbacks: The possibility of bad dream in the future is discussed and planned for dealing with it. The boy reviews the other forms of rescription such as fantasy and drawing.

Celebration and thanking: At the celebration, the child expresses thanks to his supporters and demonstrates the skill of having a pleasant dream which he has learned.

Teaching others: At the celebration, one of his classmates asks him: "How can I deal with the falling in my dream?" He tells him: "You need a power creature like Rostam to get the strength for overcoming the falling in your dream." Then, he guides his classmate to imagine changes in the outcome of his dream by drawing it. All of these indicate that the boy has learned the skill of having a pleasant dream. Hence, he can teach it to another child.

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