Emotional wellbeing and lots of fun!
Monday July 11th to Friday July 15th inclusive
10am to 1pm in Altnaveigh House (opposite Tesco)
Contact Sarah for more info!
LIMITED PLACES

Emotional wellbeing and lots of fun!
Monday July 11th to Friday July 15th inclusive
10am to 1pm in Altnaveigh House (opposite Tesco)
Contact Sarah for more info!
LIMITED PLACES
Did you know that Tapping (EFT) is a practical self-help method that involves using the fingers to tap gently on the body’s acupuncture points? Research has shown that EFT has been shown to positively address, stress related disorders, depression and PTSD.
We want our children to be happy. We want them to grow up happy, confident and with self-esteem and self-belief.
Dealing with certain perceived stressful situations can be difficult enough for adults …. (Think how you have felt going into A level exams or finals at University, competing in a sporting match or at a job interview?)
How then can a child maturely deal with self-efficacy?
Self efficacy – their ability to succeed in a situation – how they think, feel or behave.
They’re not fully formed physically, never mind emotionally. They rely on us to teach them, guide them and nurture their complete health.
What sort of beliefs do they hold about themselves? And how do they face challenges like state exams and possibly dealing with a grade they didn’t want to see arriving on their doorstep that third Saturday in January? And what does that do to their self-efficacy for the future?
It must take a knock.
It can take years to develop self-efficacy and a sense of wellbeing …… Is a child’s sense of wellbeing, confidence, self-esteem and self-belief provoked when for almost two years they face possible emotional devastation, worry and anxiety, punctuated by consistent assessments, if they don’t achieve a level of evaluation in just three hours on one morning of their young lives, which could, they might feel, define them as a success or a failure?
And how do we teach them that if they have to go through it, that the outcome on doesn’t define them or their future accomplishments?
Surely their success in self-efficacy is how they react and deal with a disappointment. Isn’t that real success?
Their are many techniques and tools for helping with wellbeing but one which has been found to achieve wonderful and positive results is Tapping. Tapping or EFT, is one of the most powerful, simple and easy techniques and can produce almost instantly positive results. Children being asked to face challenges at such a tender age, the stress, worries, fears, anxiety and possible subsequent feelings of inadequacy is hard for any parent to face, let alone the vulnerable child who is forced to undergo archaic measures of judgement.
Little Sunflower aims to teach children a life skill from age seven that they can learn, just like riding a bike, learning to swim or reading a book. One they can take and use anytime they feel. One that, hopefully, will assist in strengthening their self-belief, so when the time comes, to face challenge, they have the inner confidence to think, feel and behave in a manner that will make us proud in knowing we are creating a skill set to ensure their safe future.
5 Little Sunflower Top Tips for AQE Students
Little Sunflower is an early intervention emotional wellbeing programme for primary schools and children ages 6 -10 years. Using digital, interactive animation, audio visual books, books, ebooks and plush toys, the Little Sunflower teaches a life skill to children to help them develop resilience and self-esteem through, arts and crafts, audio skills, holistic elements, literacy, movement, music, visual & verbal skills, simple psychology and soon to come technology.
Sarah Gilbert, owner at Little Sunflower, says, ‘I was a very shy child growing up and looked forward to my one hour thirty minutes each week at drama class, where, for that time, I felt visible and could lose myself in another character. No surprises that I began my career as a drama teacher!’
Throughout ten years of teaching, she noticed that the children she had the privilege to work with, were, in the main, just like her, shy and lacking confidence. She says it was frustrating that, ‘I could only give them what I called ‘a façade’ of confidence. They went through exams, into festivals, but I could tell, behind their eyes, just like mine, the belief wasn’t there. And I knew that to be able to do something about it I had to refocus.’
So, she went drama college and fulfilled a dream – retraining as an actor at the Drama Studio London and spending the next seven years working in tv, film and theatre as well as a voice over for radio and tv and writer of documentaries and radio drama, winning Gold for writing, producing, directing and acting in the radio play, The Terror of Leap Castle, at Ireland’s prestigious PPI Awards in 2010.
‘When my son was born,’ she says, ‘I decided to work from home as a voice artist and writer so I could be mum. Then when he started school, I saw the same reasons I had left teaching in the children I now saw at the school gates every day.’
And the Little Sunflower journey began.
It has taken a lot of training and years to bring the resource to school readiness and she admits it was great to eventually go to schools and deliver the programme. However, due to the Covid pandemic has had to find another way to deliver the message and spent the last year getting Little Sunflower digitally ready!
‘I’m thrilled and so excited that Little Sunflower’s journey is just beginning and I truly hope that children will have the opportunity to interact with the Little Sunflower and watch it grow with self-belief, mirroring their own development.’
Now she’s ready to talk to anyone who’s happy to listen!
www.littlesunflower.co.uk www.littlesunflower.ie
insta: Little_Sunflower_2021
Linked in: Little Sunflower
FB: Little Sunflower 88