We Listen to Our Bodies

by Lydia Bowers

Deja helps young children recognize their emotions by listening to their bodies

Body awareness is a key foundation of consent. We Listen to Our Bodies gives children a vocabulary to understand and communicate their feelings, develop personal boundaries, and build their social and emotional skills.

Through body awareness and recognizing how emotions physically manifest, young children can listen to their bodies for clues about how they’re feeling. Their bodies might feel shaky when worried or like one big sigh when calm and relaxed. By recognizing that physical sensations are trying to communicate something, children can understand when they feel unsafe, calm, or in need of healthy touch.

We Listen to Our Bodies follows Deja and her preschool classmates as they learn to build emotional self-awareness by listening to the physical cues of their bodies. Using the book as a read-aloud, educators and families can model the language Deja’s teachers use to support children as they learn body awareness. The author, who hosts workshops and trainings on teaching consent for families and early childhood educators around the country, offers additional activities in the back of the book.

Digital content includes a song from Peaceful Schools with downloadable MP3 files and sheet music.

3 – 5 years old
Hardcover | 36 pages | Free Spirit Publishing | 2021