Biblio Therapy

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Using Bibliotherapy with children.

Transcript of Biblio Therapy

Bibliotherapy involves the use of books to help children and young adults deal with the psychological, emotional and other personal issues that arise in their lives. Technically, it has been defined as the use of literature to bring about a therapeutic interaction between a participant and facilitator. As a method of promoting therapeutic interaction between reader and child, bibliotherapy has become more widespread in recent years. It is good in the same way as it allows interaction and communication between the facilitator which will be the teacher in the teaching and learning process in the class. At most times, teachers just look literature as a boring subject and just as another story telling to students during the lesson but they do not know one thing which the story or other literature devices does give an impact to the student. Somehow when children read or learn about a story that given, it may relate back to them. For example, the story line or even the challenges which may make them ponder about it. Its like as though they are the characters in the book.Therefore, one of the most effective ways to bring to face their challenges, fears or even worries is by presenting to them the character in a book that face almost the situation which happens in their own life. By doing this, children are able to see how the character in the book deals with the situation or challenges which may help them to learn and also apply the same methods of way and resolution to their own personal problems. Sometimes, telling or advising children just not helpful enough in helping them in their problems but they just have to read about it. When they read it and feels something that is related, thats the honesty in it because the feel the pain or the emotion that the character is facing because it is related to them.Bibliotherapy, which can be used alongside other, more traditional methods of helping children deal with emotional issues. Essentially, reading a childrens book to a child, when the child can see that certain characters face similar problems, is one way to spark a conversation about the problems. This, in turn, releases emotional pressure that might have been building inside the child. The process ensures that children have an opportunity to identify, to compensate, and to relive in a controlled manner a problem that they are aware of. This also will help to student or children to see that they are not the only one that is facing the problem in the world as even the characters in the story is like them who have problems in their life. When the child is calmed enough, then high possibility he or she will communicate with the teacher or facilitator by telling and even expressing his or her problem as it forms a trusting bond as both of them share the same interests and discuss about the story.The story that I have chosen to relate to bibliotherapy is entitled The Leopard in his tree. This story is basically about a leopard that loves staying in his tree because it can see what is happening in the forest at night. One fine night, it saw a thief around the forest robbing other animals belonging such as the zebra stripes or the elephant tusk. He didnt do anything about but just enjoying watching the thief doing its job every night. Till one day when he woke up, he realized that he is sleeping on a water surface because the thief stole his tree and with him along. He wasnt happy and told the other animal who is the thief and its hideout. As soon as the other animal knew, they went and collect back what they had including the leopard but sadly his tree could be planted again after being chopped off so he had to shift to another place which is lonelier. Therefore, the moral of this story is indifference to the problems of others can allow those problems to grow until they end up being problems to ourselves. From the synopsis of the story above, we can use it to develop self-awareness and enhanced self-concept into the students mind. Different student have different ways of accepting certain ideas and knowledge. For example, in that story it teaches us be always be helpful and being concern to someone else. In school, student might get bullied and if student A sees it and just ignore, then in the future when he get bullied, who else will help him then. So as the teacher tell this story student A might felt he is leopard in the story for not helping his friends. In the same time it will create self-awareness that he must do something to stop the bully, maybe by telling to his teacher or discipline teacher. He would be aware of the danger of bully and he will know that it is not good to be practised around which will lead us to self-concept. Putting into his mind that bully is not right. In addition, the also encourages student to think and examine the moral values and the stimulation of critical thinking as the story is being told. Teacher must play a good role in really challenging his student to think critically by analysing the story and see what can they gained from the story. When the student is able to identify the moral values of the story, they will most probably learn from it. Next, is able to stimulate student to think critical. When student are able to know and see the roles of the character, they will be able to relate to themselves. Asking various question on the story enable to stimulate student mind and especially in trying to deliver something new to them such as moral values.Besides that, this story also can be used to heal. Lets imagine a student named Abu. His character is almost similar leopard in the story and he feels bad and very down about it. Therefore, in the first stage which is the identification stage, the goal is to help the child identify with a character in the book. So in this context, Abu is like most similarity of the leopard, where he do sees his friends being bullied but he just stand and watch without doing anything. When the Abu is able to see the clear picture that he is the leopard in the story, he will most likely said it out such as Ive felt like this or I know what its like to go through that.Then, after the identification stage is done, this is the time where he will be emotionally involved in the story which is the catharsis stage. It defined as the release of thoughts and feelings that have been suppressed. At this point, the teacher should engage Abu in discussion, as this will help him explore the issues in greater deal and will help him externalize his feelings. If Abu has difficulties in speaking out his feelings or still feeling emotionally, he could draw pictures to help in releasing his emotions.Next is the insight stage. In the stage, after Abu is able to recognize and acknowledge his feelings, he should be able to realize that his situation that he faced is not hopeless and he still has a good future ahead. In addition, he also can look and uphold any protagonist of the story as his role model or an example where it can be used to handle his own problem in life. In this story, there is no protagonist character but it one part can be used as an example which is almost at the end of the story, where the leopard finally work hand in hand with the other animals to get back their stuff together. The leopard could just run away and find another tree to get shelter but he didnt. He went to get the other animals and brought them to the hiding place of the thief. Lastly, is the final stage is the universalization stage. Abu should realize that his problem is not only him alone and that others also do face similar challenges, problems and also emotions. By now, he should feel relieved especially from the emotion aspect as he could examine his own situation with the story given. He also can evaluate his situation from the fresh and good perspective. For example, even though the leopard is bad and selfish in the beginning but what he did at end is something should be given credit too. Therefore, after personal meaning and understanding, he can take the implication to change his life and stop feeling bad about it.As a conclusion, we are able to see that the importance of bibliotherapy in literature and also teaching to ensure student is always excited and happy to learn. Story being told also can be use to heal student such as Abu. With the proper story chose and steps, it can be easily done as Abu is guide slowly in analysing and really getting to know the character and compared to him. Therefore, bibliography is should be practised often because children should be encouraged to read at every available opportunity. Bibliotherapy thus serves the dual purpose of helping a child with difficult life situations while also enhancing the childs reading facility. This can ultimately help the child perform better in school, which will in turn increase the childs self-esteem and confidence.

ReferenceAmanda Niland.(2012, November 27). Bibliotherapy: books to help children understand their worlds. Retrieved from http://letsreaditagain.blogspot.com/2012/11/bibliotherapy-books-to-help-children.html.Anti-Defamation League.(2005). Benefits of Bibliotherapy. Retrieved from http://archive.adl.org/education/curriculum_connections/winter_2005/benefits_of_bibliotherapy.aspDr. Deb.(2006, April 3). Healing Through Books: Bibliotherapy. Retrieved from http://drdeborahserani.blogspot.com/2006/04/healing-through-books-bibliotherapy.htmlKathy Mobley.(2009). Defining and Using Bibliotherapy. Retrieved from http://adoptionworld.net/a_bibliography.phpLeah Davies.(n.d). Using Bibliotherapy with Children. Retrieved from http://www.kellybear.com/TeacherArticles/TeacherTip34.htmlPedro Pablo Sacristn.(n.d). The Leopard in his Tree. Retrieved from http://freestoriesforkids.com/children/stories-and-tales/leopard-his-treeTom McIntyre.(n.d). Bibliotherapy. Retrieved from http://www.behavioradvisor.com/Biblio.html