Children’s Game and Book Help Kids Understand a Parent’s Absence
Jan 16 2008
When a parent is deployed, children suffer in ways that aren’t always obvious. Direct questions can often bury the feelings even deeper, making getting to the heart of the hurting painful for all.
Using a book or a game as springboards to conversation have been proven time and again as ways to get a child to open up. With her new releases “My First Deployment” and “Mail Call! The Military Deployment Game”, Navy wife, therapist, and mother Lisa Stillion, M.S.W., gives caregivers everywhere the tools needed to make this happen.
Lisa’s first book, “My First Deployment” is more than a cute, whimsical tale. A rambunctious little girl, Allie, radiates a range of emotions when her father leaves for a military deployment. Exploring the causes and effects of separation anxiety, “My First Deployment” encourages creative ways for children to express thoughts and emotions, and gives caregivers easy ways to help young ones cope with the loss they feel.
“Mail Call! The Military Deployment Game,” is the first of its kind, designed with the family in mind as players chase each other around the game board, trying to get a care package assembled and mailed out to a loved one.
Fun and exciting, “Mail Call!” helps military families maintain strong family ties through understanding and sharing. Because the needs of each individual family differ, “Mail Call!” can be played competitively or as a team — there is no winner or loser.
Designed and written for military families or anyone touched by war, both the book and game are wonderful stepping stones to the first point of healing: an open, honest conversation with our children.
For more information, visit www.stillionpublications.com.
