STAMP Treatment Manual - Exploring feelings for young children with High-Functioning Autism or Asperger’s Disorder book is written by Tony Attwood, Angela Scarpa and Anthony Wells. Tony Attwood is a clinical psychologist with over three decades of experience and is a prominent personality in the Autism world. Angela Scarpa and Anthony Wells are well known and respected psychologists who have years of experience working with children with Autism.
STAMP stands for Stress And Anger Management Program and is considered an extension of Dr. Tony Attwood’s Cognitive behavioural program. This is a structured treatment that provides children with coping strategies that help in decreasing negative feelings and foster the development of positive feelings. This book provides an in depth understanding of the essential components of STAMP -
Affective education - teaching children about feelings, both positive and negative emotions as well as vocabulary to express their feelings.
Cognitive restructuring - teaching the children that their thoughts can affect how they feel and act. Enabling children to realize that they can sometimes change their thoughts to feel better.
The emotional toolbox - strategies to help children ways to handle their anger and anxiety.
The book discusses the nine sessions in STAMP treatment and is as follows :
Session 1 - Exploring positive feelings ( like happiness)
Session 2 - Exploring positive feelings ( like relaxation) as well as anger and anxiety. Emotional toolbox is also introduced here.
Session 3 - Exploring Anger & Anxiety and Physical & relaxation tools
Session 4 - Social Tools
Session 5 - Thinking Tools
Session 6 - Special Interest tools
Session 7 - Appropriate and inappropriate tools
Session 8 - Review of the emotional toolbox
Session 9 - focuses on reviews, assessments and reward for completing the sessions.
Each session uses positive, encouraging tone, songs, games to help the young child ( developmentally in the age of 5 to 7 years) master this essential skill. Though this manual is meant for group sessions, you can easily adapt it and individualize it to suit your child.
This book review is for all those parents who got in touch with me after reading the review of the book - Think Good, Feel Good. They wanted a suggestion to try Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for younger children. I hope you find this book review useful. Teaching our young children these very essential skills will provide a strong foundation for a more balanced life for your child as he/she grows up.
You can buy this book from Amazon India
