Thumball Emotion Mania 4"

I am a child therapist who works with children ages 5-11 and this is an excellent tool to use in therapy sessions to increase feelings vocabulary, self expression and to encourage open discussion. The ball is soft and squeezable yet made of durable material. It is larger than I expected which is good because it is easy to see and read. It is fun, engaging and children love it. They even asked to play with the "Feelings Ball" weeks after I used it for the first time. Although I do not work with adults (for individual therapy) I think it would be a great tool for therapists working with adults as well. Who did not enjoy tossing a ball back and forth with someone when they were younger and the feel of this ball is very relaxing to the touch. I think it would be a light and enjoyable change for an adult to use this during a therapy session. I would highly recommend it to anyone working with others (of any age) in a counseling setting. One a last note, parents can also use this ball to encourage their child to open up and discuss feelings with them so over all this item is an excellent find for anyone.

Any psychologist who works with kids should have one of these! In fact, anyone who works with kids and anyone who is parent would benefit from having one of these! I love how they are fun to play with while normalizing emotions and helpful kids feel like it’s okay to talk openly about how they feel.

I work with children in out patient services who have a myriad of emotional and behavioral complications in life. This ball as been a great took to get kids talking and identifying feelings using a kinetic activity. We play basketball with it, have catches. They even get their siblings and parents involved. It has been a wonderful therapeutic tool.

This ball is going over well with the children and adolescents I provide counseling for. It definitely encourages more emotional expression in a nonthreatening way. Everyone seems to enjoy the physically engaging aspect of tossing the ball back and forth while communicating. The ball is soft and easy to handle and I think they enjoy the feel of it too. I would have given this a 5 for it's usefulness, but I have concerns about the construction of the ball. I have only had it a few weeks, and I have used it have used it one on one only--no one has been particularly rough with it yet white threads are visible along the seams of one of the panels. It appears that it's going to get looser. I am not sure if it arrived that way, or happened after use, as I didn't inspect it closely when it arrived--but either way it's disappointing. I am concerned about whether it will last. Perhaps this particular ball is defective and not representative of the workmanship--I don't know--but if I was rating on construction alone I would actually give it a 2.

I'm a counselor and use this in sessions with kids and teens. They love it! It's creates a fun, interactive way to get them talking about feelings by explaining what the work means and having them tell a time when they relate to the word. Recommend for counselors, groups, ice breakers, etc!

Great product! I work with kids and adults daily. I use this for my therapy groups. It is a nice change of format from "traditional" groups and helps get quiet groups talking. It doesn't come with any instructions but as long as you are imaginative it can be a very effective tool in therapy groups.

This is a fun tool to use in therapy. After you catch the ball, look at the emotion word that is under your thumb. Act out that emotion and see if others can guess correctly which emotion it was. Older kids have had fun using this in therapy. That makes it a winner in my book!

It's cute. Not sure it is terribly useful as listed, but it is a great focus object for stressed kids and the images and words might assist them with articulating their concerns.