Choosing goals for your child
When you first set up the game, you will need to choose 3 goals for your young person to work on. There are 15 goals you can choose from.
Choosing specific goals can help you focus on making changes that are important to you and your child.
What are goals?
A goal is a realistic and achieveable activity or behaviour that you would like your child to feel less worried about. e.g. To feel comfortable sleeping on their own.
Each goal is broken down into several small challenges that start off easy and gradually get harder.
The first few challenges happen in the game (e.g. imagine, draw, look at photos, and watch videos), while the rest happen outside the game - these are real life challenges that will need your support.
With each new challenge, your young person will learn that the things they worry about probably won’t happen. And even if they do, they’ll learn they can cope with feeling worried and make progress anyway!
Here are some important things to consider when choosing a goal:
Which goal will make a bigger difference for your child?
For example, if your child struggles to sleep at night, choosing a goal that will help them sleep on their own might also help them improve their bedtime routine and their mood in the morning. Choosing a goal like being able to spend time near dogs might not make as big a difference if your child is unlikely to see many dogs. Choose a goal that seems like it will make the biggest impact.
Which goal will help make other worries easier?
For example, if your child were less worried about speaking in front of a group, they might also be less worried about going to school or to a social gathering or party. Choose a goal central to your child’s worries that might help them worry less about other things, too.
Will one of your child’s worries get in the way of working on another one?
For example, it might be hard for your child to go to a party or social gathering if they are worried about being away from you. Think about the order that you choose goals to work on so that your child is only facing one worry at a time.
Which goal will be the easiest to tackle?
Helping your child feel brave and successful is important, so choosing goals that seem less scary or easier to achieve can be a helpful way to start.
Source: Helping Your Child with Fears and Worries 2nd Edition, A self-help guide for parents – Cathy Creswell, Lucy Willetts