Big Feelings

Helping your child handle big angry feelings

Anger arrives fast and loud, and words disappear. Young children feel it in the body long before they can explain it.

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What your child may be practising

Finding where the feeling sits in the body
Giving the feeling a name
Using one calming action that works for them
Choosing words instead of hitting or yelling

How a Maple Kids story approaches it

1The story shows the build-up, not only the explosion.
2The hero learns a small physical way to let the wave pass.
3The Parent Guide helps you talk about it when everyone is calm.
4The practice rehearses the calming step before it is needed.

Story preview · Page 7

The mad wave rose up from Ros's toes to the top of his head. He pressed his feet down and let it roll past, like water on sand.

Parent Guide preview

What this page is doing

Connecting the physical sensation of anger to a name and a next action.

Ask

“Where did Ros feel the big mad wave?”“What helped the wave get smaller?”

Words to repeat

“Big feelings are allowed. Hurting is not. I'll stay with you.”

Try it in real life

Name one feeling out loud each, at dinner tonight.

Why stories can help with this

Stories & Emotion Regulation
Structured emotion-themed picture-book activities have been associated with improvements in preschool children's emotion recognition, expression and regulation strategies.
Wang L, Cui R, Wan N, Hu W. “Reshaping the Ability–Strategy Link in Emotion Regulation: The Role of a Structured Picture-Book Intervention for Preschoolers.” Behavioral Sciences. 2025;15(8):1137.
DOI: 10.3390/bs15081137
Stories, Empathy & Prosocial Behavior
A randomized study of four- to five-year-old children found that repeated shared reading of socially themed picture books was associated with improvements in empathy and prosocial behavior.
Chen H, Lyu D, Zhu L. “The effectiveness of social-themed picture book reading in promoting children's prosocial behavior.” Frontiers in Psychology. 2025.
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1569925

These studies examine shared reading and picture books in general. They did not test Maple Kids. Maple Kids is an educational parenting tool and not medical, psychological, diagnostic or therapeutic care.

Read the Research

Ready to build a story around managing anger?