Assessing the Need for and Impact of an Emotions Regulation Booster Program for Elementary School Aged Children

K-W Counselling Services has offered emotions management programs to children ages 6-15 in the Waterloo region for the last 10 years. This mixed methods study was conducted in two phases. Phase One explored whether the parents of children who had participated in S.T.E.A.M. or Temper Taming groups three years prior felt there was a need for a “booster program” to help refresh their child’s memory about the concepts. Twenty-two parents were interviewed, two of whom had two children in the programs. This meant that feedback was offered in relation to twenty four children participants. The parents were asked with open ended questions if they felt a booster program was needed. If they did believe it was needed they were asked for ideas about how to design the program. Thirteen parents said that the booster program was a definite need and provided feedback to develop a 5 week, 1.5 hour per session program. In Phase Two the booster program was implemented as a pilot project and a group of 7 children ages 12-14 participated in the program. A comparison group of 8 children ages 10-14 were used to assess the impact of the booster program. The booster group showed significant incresaes in the areas of emotional awareness, emotional expressiveness, number of identified body clues, and number of identified calming activities. The comparison group showed no significant changes on the outcomes measured