"It Feels Good to be Let In"--A book to teach young children about how it feels to be excluded and how to change that behavior

A Stanford University student wrote and illustrated a soft cover book to teach young children about how it feels to be excluded and how to change that behavior. She developed the book while working with the children at Bing Nursery School as part of the final project for a psychology course. The story elements were chosen based on what interested the children most. The author chose to focus on exclusion because it is a developmental issue for all children of preschool age. After the author completed the class project and read it to the children at Bing, the book was published for all of the children at the Nursery School.

The book provides behavior modeling for caregivers without preaching or dogma. It also uses simple language so that the principals of including others in social behavior are clearly expressed in terms young children will understand and relate to.

Synopsis:
The story is based on a child that goes through emotions and hurt feelings as she is left out by friends during several activities. She then learns that she will feel good if she doesn't give in to the temptation to do that to her friends too, but to find a way to include them, which makes her feel good. This demonstrates and teaches how to deal with situations of exclusion and methods to change those behaviors through self awareness and specific techniques.

The inside back cover shows children how to create their own simple illustrations and suggests related activities.

Audience:
The book is intended to be read to pre-school and early grade school (K-2) children. It is most suited for childcare settings, such as pre-schools, home childcare, camps, or elementary schools. It could also be used by parents or any caregiver of young children.