Those who daily work with children and young people in the developmental age are faced with the problems typical of growing up: anger management, performance anxiety, the idea of always feeling inadequate.

My P.E.S.C.A. Backpack is a useful tool for childhood psychologists and psychotherapists to facilitate the creation of a therapeutic relationship with children, helping them discover more about themselves, improve their awareness, observe and respond in new and flexible ways to one’s inner experiences. The acronym P.E.S.C.A. stands for “Thoughts, Emotions, Sensations, Behaviors, Learning.”  The briefcase includes 8 boxes containing the cards to carry out the activities.

Find out more!

The box contents

2 game boards

3 maxicards

8 boxes of cards

1 die

Activity guide

Teaching objectives

• understand emotions, thoughts, feelings, and behaviours;
• improve self-regulation processes;
• facilitate self-awareness;
• promote committed action in the direction of values.

The activities

With the tools inside the My P.E.S.C.A. Backpack it is possible to play 2 different games:

PESCOCA

Objective: to enhance awareness on mental contents and behaviours.

How to play? This is a classic board game, but along the route there are P.E.S.C.A. stations. When the player lands on one of them, he/she must extract a card from the matching box and recount an experience related to the card.

As a variant, you can avoid using cards and have players tell a story of their choice.

TRAVELING WITH A COMPASS

Objective: to strengthen the coping strategies learned.

How to play? Along the route there are “Stop” stations, at which participants must stop and collect a card from the Situation Box. Before proceeding, the player must deal with the situation using the strategies described in the Compass Box. At the same time, he/she must explain the reasons for their choice.

Leaf through the instructions translated into English to facilitate your evaluation of the product:

ACT – Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

My P.E.S.C.A. backpack is an interactive resource created within the framework of ACT Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. ACT promotes children’s ability to observe and respond to their internal experiences in a new and flexible way through a series of experiential activities, verbal and physical metaphors, evocative cards, storytelling, cartoons, comics, video games, mindfulness, drawings and other expressions of artistic skills compatible with individual preferences and cognitive and linguistic skills.

Find out more!

The Author

Raffaella Baldino is a psychotherapist and has been dealing with learning difficulties and disorders for almost thirty years (including preventive interventions in schools), emotional and behavioral problems in children and young people and parenting support. She is part of the ACT Special Interest Group for Kids and Teens of ACT Italia, and is a member of an authorized team for the diagnosis of SLD.