THESIS PROJECT 2019 TAIL-A-FRIEND
An illustrated childrens book and a teacher’s supplement STUDENT:
NISHI BANKA
PROJECT:
Medians of the Mind
SPONSOR:
Self initiated
PROGRAM:
Undergraduate Professional Programme
AWARD:
Visual Communication & Strategic Branding
GUIDES:
Meena Vari, Sai Krishna, Allan Parker
Copyrights 2016-2017 Student Document Publication (for private circulation only) All Rights Reserved Final Thesis Project (Undergraduate Professional Programme) Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology Bangalore - 560064 Karnataka No part of this document will be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, scanning, photography and video recording without written permission from the publishers namely Siddharth Singh and Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore. Written, edited and designed by Nishi Banka Printed at Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND PLAGIARISM STATEMENT I, NISHI BANKA, hereby declare that the content of this student documentation and final design/artwork submission is my own original work and has not been plagiarised in full or part from previously published/designed/manufactured material or does not even contain substantial propositions of content which have been accepted for an award of any other degree or diploma of any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in this thesis project. I also declare that the intellectual content of this Thesis Project is my own original work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception or in style and presentation is acknowledged and that this thesis project (or part of it) will not be submitted as assessed work in any other academic course.
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT I, NISHI BANKA, hereby grant Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology the right to archive and to make available my Thesis Project in whole or in part in the institute’s databank and website, and for non-commercial use in all forms of media, now and hereafter known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act.
Name: NISHI BANKA Signature: Date: 02.05.2019
TAIL-A-FRIEND An attempt to promote empathy among 6-8 year olds and bringing the education system’s attention to more pressing subjects
PROJECT PROPOSAL BACKGROUND One of the biggest problems when it comes to discussing mental illnesses in India is the lack of empathy and acceptance in the society for the ones who are suffering. While there are a number of campaigns running around to educate people about mental health, almost none of them are targeted towards children. A child has two major setting in his/her life. Their primary informal setting is their home while their primary formal setting is the school. These are the two places where a child is in contact other people and picks up on social cues. If children are given a more profound, concrete and solid development it goes on to make them better functioning and happier adults. Some therapists I interviewed also went on to say that they believe that more than working with adults, it would help our society if they work with children because childhood is usually where all disorders take birth, some show right away while some take years to surface. They believe that with right kind of resources, awareness and knowledge they will grow up to be healthier and happier adults. Sadly, none of the two settings have a set ritual of addressing mental health like they address physical health. Intervening at an early age will not just help them become better adults but will also help them see their special peers with respect and empathy. According to Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, between the ages of 6 to 12, a child is likely to develop the virtue of industry or inferiority. During this crucial age, children reach a very social stage where teachers, friends and neighbors start to play a very important role, while the parents take a back seat in terms of being influential. Children around this age are in constant lookout for approval and validation from outside home. However, if a child somehow lands up with unresolved feelings of adequacy or inferiority among his/her peers, their self-esteem can take a major hit for the rest of their lives. This is also an age where many children come up with a number of learning disabilities or other mental health issues and when their peers, without knowing any better, pick on them, they unknowingly destroy a child’s confidence. This project will tend to the problem at a very grass root level to avoid problems of the present and the future.
PRODUCTION I began with the project by researching if my hypothesis is correct. On speaking to four different child psychologists from completely different backgrounds, it was established that there is a dire need for an intervention at the tender formative years of a child. To further strengthen my hypothesis, I interviewed a number of young adults to know if they had ever been taught about mental health in their childhood about 87.9% (out of 80) replied with a “no”. These insights paved way for me to go deeper into my subject and understand about how children grow, what is their level of understanding and how do they think. I also looked intricately at a number of children’s movies and literature and was surprised to find mental health connotations in some of the very famous ones. After all the primary and secondary research, I had some answers to the research questions that I began with. I also tried to talk to some children of that age but could not get any proper responses as most of them were either too shy or too restless to sit through the conversation. That also gave me an insight of a teacher’s or parent’s trouble while trying to communicate with them. TARGET AUDIENCE After a lot of research, it was decided that 6-8 is the perfect age to introduce a child to the concept of mental wellness and empathy. After reading Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development and Piaget’s theory of cognitive development , I realized that later childhood is the time when children learn to interact with the world and also learn to understand their own selves. With increasing vocabularies, they gain emotional understanding when they learn words to associate with their experiences and other’s experiences. This is also the stage when finally, they begin to see what other might be feeling. This time is also responsible for the growth of a child’s social skills and confidence. POSSIBLE OUTCOMES While there are a number of ideas regarding the form in my mind, at this moment, I am more inclined towards a book. The idea is to reduce screen time for the children as much as possible and also introduce something that might become a part of their daily curriculum. Even within the book, there are vast options that I am yet to ponder upon. With further research, I am hoping to get better insights of whether to make a story book, activity book, pop-up book or so on. I also plan on making a toolkit for the teachers to be better equipped to handle a topic as sensitive as mental health.
Contents
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Research and Topic Selection
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Content Development
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Visual iterations & Story boarding iterations
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Final Process
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The Final Books
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Final Reflection, Acknowledgements and Bibliography
RESEarch
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INTRODUCTION My project falls under the broad umbrella of “Medians of the Mind”. This project was in collaboration with the Nation Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore. We were given the liberty to choose any topic within the broader topic of mental health or neuro science. I decided to work with the mental health aspect of the project. Having done some projects on mental health in the past, I decided to take a completely new direction for this project. Upon my numerous visits to NIMHANS and talking to the doctors there, I saw a scope in working with children. That’s where I decided to work on mental health awareness among children. As my project moved forward, it evolved to become more about empathy promotion among the mentioned children. Here’s my journey through the various decisions.
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Visit to nimhans This visit helped me understand how NIMHANS functions. I saw the out patient depart, children’s departnment and a number of other places in the campus. Talking to some psychaitrists also helped me understand the procedures that NIMHANS follows when it comes to out patients and in patients.
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Most of the information was gathered through the meathod of primary research. I spoke to a number of counsellors, teachers and child physchaitrists to understand the needs of the hour and the importance of making children aware of their emotions as well as th emotions of others around them. After the primary research, I moved on to secondary research and read a number of articles on the topic of children’s mental health understanding, emotional understanding and cognitive understanding. Mrs. Manjari Singh and Mr. Govind Ganesh were kind enough to share their resoures, notes and knowledge with me. Given below are some of the articles that I read in the process: 1. Developmental Psychology by David R. Shaffer and Katherine Kipp 2. Choosing Complex Narrative Texts to Support Literary Discussion by Jessica L. Hoffman, William H. Teale and Junko Yokota 3. “MY LD”: Children’s Voices on the Internet by Marshall H. Raskind, Malka Margalit and Eleanor L. Higgins 4. Reflecting on Books That Include Characters With Disabilities by Charis L. Price, Michaelene M. Ostrosky and Rosa Milagros Santos 5. Understand Child Development (Chapter 7) by Carolyn Meggit 6. Preschool Through Primary Grades: Using Picture Books to Promote Social-Emotional by Laurie J. Harper 7. Clinical assessment and treatment of ADHD in children by L. C. Smoot, L. A. Boothby, R. C. Gillett
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survey I floated this survey to college level students and was sadly, not very surprised with the results. Majority of the research bent towards the fact that no one even knew what mental health was until they either faced it themselves or saw someone close to them go through it. This helped strengthen my position in my project. It showed me the importance of introducing this topic to children at a grass root level and how many positive results could come from it.
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Visit to Bookstores Bookworm bookworm Higginbothams HIGGINBOTHAMS Lightroom lightroom
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These were some books that I found very relevent to my topic.
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Inspite of visiting the best in bookstores children’s find not Bangalore, I could many books that dealt with the concept of emotions. The ones t hat were there were way too basic and barely covered much. To get a better grip on the use of emotions in children’s literature, I moved my search online came across books that fit my topic.
I read books that not only revolved around the topic of emotions but also books related to various disabilities in the characters. These books helped me understand the comprehensive capabilities of children and also opened my mind to a number of new possibilities. It also brought my attention to the lack of popularity of such books in India.
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HAPPINESS CURRICULUM // DELHI
Happiness Curriculum
As my project proceeded and I moved deeper in my topic, I spoke to n number of working professionals from various fields. Some of them were counsellors, some were teachers, some psychaitrists and some who owned child care centers. While talking to one such teacher, I was told about the beginning of a “Happiness Curriculum” in the government schools of Delhi. This program has been introduced accross all the government schools in the city right from nursery to class 8. Every day, one hour is spent as a “happiness hour” where teachers carry out various activities in class that help children become more aware emotionally. This initiative has been put in practise just a few months ago with the intention of helping children grow as more emotionally aware adults.
ISELF
ISELF
Indian Social and Emotional Learning Framework is another initiative by The Teacher’s Foundation that has launched a toolkit for the teachers to help their students be more emotionally aware and spread the importance of emotions.
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takeaway After the intense research on children’s psychology, various mental health disabilities, children’s literature, children’s entertainment and their learning and cognitive development, I had a very clear idea of which direction my project would take. I knew right then that I would be making something that could remain a part of children’s life for a long period of time. I did not want to make anything that would be short lived and also wanted to reduce the screen time for children. That’s where I decided to make a book for children that would become a part of their curriculum. However, during my first seminar, my jurors told me that they liked my research a lot and think that teachers would benefit from the research itself. They suggested making a toolkit out of all the research that I have done. This was the turning point of my project where I decided to find a mid-way between my vision of the project and my panel’s vision of the same. I decided to make a children’s activity book along with a teacher’s supplement. This book would revolve around the idea of emotions of the children.
content development
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overview Having never worked with children and not being around a lot of children, content development became a huge part of my project. To add to my complexities, the content did not just have to be child friendly but also had to be very carefully written because I was dealing with a very sensitive topic. The first few plot lines that I came up with were very straightforward and barely made an interesting story for children. It took a lot of work to get to a point where the story did not just have meaning for the children but also portrayed what I intended. The next few pages are snaps of the initial plot ideas I had and following that, comes the story written and re-written around 20 times after taking feedback from a number of working professionals.
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initial plot ideas
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I did not go ahead with these plot ideas because they were too simple and too straight forward. I knew that these ideas would not interest the children enough to make them interested in the topic. On further research, I realized that it will be better if I used animal characters for my story so that it does not remind the children directly of someone they know. It would not be as hard hitting as using human characters. I also thought of ways to use metaphors to make the story more interesting and indirect.
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initial activities Along with the initial plot ideas, I had also come up with a list of activites to go with the plots. I modified and used some of these activites for my final version as well.
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New plot framework After considering the various feedbacks regarding my initial plot ideas, I came up with a new flow for a new story. This story had the setting of a forest and my protagonist was a lion. Little did I know the number of changes this story would take through the course of its time.
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first draft Once upon a time, in a faraway Jungle, lived Lulu the lion. Lulu had a lot of friends, some lived nearby, and some lived further away. They were all very different from each other. Some of them had stripes, some had dots and some didn’t have any patterns on their bodies. Some were huge while some were really tiny. Some of them were quiet and some were very loud, some liked to eat and some slept during class hours itself! Activity 1: Teacher should ask the following questions in class and facilitate the discussion: How are children different from each other? What would happen if everyone was same? How, in spite of being different, everyone has similarities? How do differences make the world a better place? Discuss the importance of respecting the differences. While all of Lulu’s friends were different in their own way, Lulu’s best friend influenced him the most. They stayed together all the time and were completely inseparable. His name was Holu. Lulu never understood how none of his other friends could ever see Holu even though he was right there. Holu and Lulu were inseparable and they went everywhere together. Ever since Lulu came to class 1, Holu had become more active. Lulu seemed very quiet. He would see the happy faces around him and not understand what’s so great about school. No one understood why Lulu was usually so aloof. Activity 2: Step 1: Partner up with a classmate.
34 Step 2: Tell them how you feel when no one understands you and what do you do then. Step 3: Partners can together come up with a three step plan for an effective communication. Lulu tried to tell his friends about Holu. No one was ready to listen to him and would just make fun of him for having an imaginary friend. Lulu felt very sad and embarrassed. Activity 3: Step 1: Partner up with another classmate. Tell each other what you are feeling. Partners have to choose an emotion sticker that is closest to what their partner is feeling and put it in the blank space. Step 2: Tell your partner why you are feeling that way, and think how you would feel in their situation. Talk about it in class. He would sit on the desk in front of Lulu so that he couldn’t see. The teacher would then scold Lulu for not paying attention. Even if Lulu packed all his stationery for school, Holu would take some out and leave them in the house. Holu would pull Lulu’s hair and make him mad. But, no one saw Holu. They only saw Lulu acting out. Lulu tried to tell them about Holu but no one would listen or understand. Activity 4: Step 1: Teacher needs to cut out the situation cards. Step 2: Divide class in groups of 2 or 3. Give each group 2-3 situation cards and tell them to discuss how each of them would feel in the given situation. Step 3: Talk in class about the discussion. Discuss if there were different answers, or everyone agreed on one emotion. Teacher needs to facilitate the discussion. As days went by, Holu kept getting bigger and more annoying. Lulu got smaller and smaller. His friends got worried. Activity 5:
35 Emotion Dumb Charades Step 1: Divide class in 2 groups. Step 2: Call one student from a group and give him an emotion to act out. Step 3: The student cannot use anything apart from his body language to express the emotion. Step 4: Have time limit for the entire game and the team that guesses more emotions win! They tried to talk to him but Holu just wouldn’t let Lulu communicate properly. Finally, one of Lulu’s friends suggested that they should take Lulu to the very knowledgeable Elle the Elephant that lives in the deeper end of the jungle. Activity 6: Encourage children to think how they would feel if they saw their friend feeling low and isolated and what would they possibly do to make them feel better? Step 1: Divide them in groups of two. Step 2: One child pretends to be upset/sad/bullied/etc, while the other child tries to console him, or make him/her feel better. Step 3: Switch roles. //introduce the concept of empathy and sympathy Have a tear able poster that says “Do to others what you would want them to do to you.” They had heard that she usually helps animals with issues that cannot be seen. Activity 7: Help find the right way through the jungle. They reach Elle and she talks to Lulu. Lulu tells her about his friend and how he never lets Lulu concentrate. Activity 8: Ask the class why is it important to talk about your feelings with an adult? What happens if you don’t share your emotions? The teacher has to distribute a balloon to each student and ask them to blow in it. Using the balloon as a metaphor, the teacher can explain what happens when you keep blowing in the balloon without letting out any air.
36 Elle told Lulu not to worry and gave him some special magical fruits. She told him to take one fruit every day and spend more time with his other friends rather than with Holu. Activity 9: Step 1: Cutting out the strips with different quotes written on it. Step 2: Joining everything together to make a chain of empathy, kindness and communication. Eventually, Lulu got back to his original size and Holu kept going smaller until he was almost of the size of an ant. Now Lulu is happy with his friends and his academics also got better.
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feebacks Getting feedbacks was a very long process. I spoke to more than 15 working professionals who went through my content and gave me their valueable feedback. As I kept getting the feedback, I kept making the required changes. The content went through a number of iterations. Given below are the names and credentials of these professionals. 1. Mr. Govind Ganesh (Counsellor, 8 years, Bangalore) 2. Ms. Suchitra Narayan (Special Educator, 30 years, Bangalore) 3. Mrs. Roshini Bhagani (Child Psychaitrist, 5 years, Mumbai) 4. Ms. Ankita Agarwal (Teacher, 5 years, Kolkata) 5. Dr. Eesha (Child Psychaitrist, NIMHANS) 6. Mrs. Anahitha Batha (Teacher, 20 years, Bangalore) 7. Mr. Johnson Jament (Educator, 15 years, Bangalore) 8. Mrs. Alka Singh (Teacher, 10 years, Delhi) They did not just give me feedback on my content but also gave me ideas to enhance my content and make it richer. They suggested ways to make the content more child friendly and hinted at how the teacher’s version of the book could take shape. Mr. Govind Ganesh also did the proof reading of the whole content.
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These are some of the notes I took from the various feedback sessions I had with the mentioned people. I made sure to incorporate everything possible that they suggested.
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user testing I knew that in order to be a 100% sure about the content that I was working with, I had to do a proper user testing. Since, I am proposing the book as a part of a school curriculum, I had to get in touch with a school that would let me take a workshop with the kids. However, understandably so, no school was willing to let me do that. After a lot of rejections, a friend of mine, Sujat Roy helped me get in touch with Hilton High, a school in Bangalore, Yelahanka. I conducted my workshops there and all the children participated with a lot of energy. It also helped me see the loopholes in my content and gave me more confidence in my final content. This workshop gave me a very useful insight into the teacher’s version of the book as well.
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Work by the children from the workshop
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Work by the children from the workshop
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final content Once upon a time, far in the west, Lived Lulu the lion, in a dense forest. With his long beautiful mane, He loved dancing in the rain. Friendly and loud, He roared with the cloud.
Children’s Book:
Lulu had a lot of friends, On whom he could depend. Though they were all different from each other, Lulu loved each like his own sister or brother.
Teacher’s Book:
Some of them had stripes, Some could climb pipes. Few were very quiet, While the others partied alright.
• How are children similar to each other? • What would happen if everyone was exactly the same? • How, in spite of the similarities, each child is different from the other? Why is it important to be different?
There were those who ate all day, And others who only lay in the hay. Study came first for some, Others were good at the hum.
Ideas on how to facilitate the discussion:
Activity 1:
1. Draw four things that are similar between you and your friends. 2. Draw four things that are different between you and your friends.
Once children are done with the drawings, we can start discussing the following questions:
We can start the discussion by talking about how all children are similar in way or another. All children sleep, eat, grow and have feelings. Here, we can also emphasise on how all children feel hurt when someone is rude to
44 them or makes fun of them. While being the same would seem fun initially because everyone would agree on everything, it would get boring eventually because we would never try anything new, everyone will come first in class and all races will always be a tie. Explain how differences make us stronger as a group as we are able to do different things better. It’s not right when some children pick on other children because of their differences. Differences do not make you weak, instead they make you stronger. We can end the discussion by talking about how we should learn to respect the differences and understand that no one likes to be treated badly because of them.
Lulu stopped talking to his other friends, No one understood his new weird trends. Activity 2: Children’s Book: • What should we do if no one understands us? o Try and make people understand calmly. o Cry and shout to be heard. o Not care if no one understands. • Pages to cut and paint an imaginary friend – Hulu. Teacher’s Book:
The difference never got in the way, Until Lulu’s childhood invisible friend started to stay. His childhood friend suddenly affected him the most, Lulu had to become his host. Hulu was the new friend’s name, Hide and seek was his favourite game. He was never seen by anyone, He and Lulu were always on the run. Hulu and Lulu were never at rest, Sometimes Lulu also looked stressed.
Talk about the whole idea of imaginary friend and maybe talk about your own imaginary friend. Note: All group activities should be done with different partners. • Ask the children to partner up with one classmate each. • Encourage them to talk about how they feel when no one understands them and what do they do in such a situation. • Once that is done, tell them to come up with a plan for effective communication in such situations.
45 You can help them with the plan by giving some advice from here:
partner’s name. Teacher’s Book:
• Try to step into the other person’s shoes and see if you were clear enough in explaining. • Think back about the conversation and check if you interpreted their reaction right. • You can try to focus on them and before coming to conclusions, you can say something like, “I just want to make sure that you understand me. Can I clarify?” • Once that is done, you can ask the other person to share what they have heard and understood. • If you are misunderstood even then, you can ask a third person (adult) for help. Hulu would disturb Lulu all the time, Even when the class was at the prime. Since Hulu could not be seen by any, Lulu was looked at differently by many. Lulu tried to tell others it’s not just him, Everyone just thought he was dim. He felt sad and unhappy when no one heard, Sometimes he wished Hulu just blurred.
• Ask the children to partner up with someone new. • Encourage them to talk about their feelings after reading the last two stanzas. • The partner has to choose an emotion sticker that is closest to what their buddy is feeling and put it in the blank space along with the buddy’s name. • Check if anyone is feeling happy/glad/etc. and ask them why they feel that way. • Tell them how most of them feel sad because they feel bad for Lulu. As humans, we should often associate with other’s feelings and emotions. Hulu started disturbing Lulu a lot more, No one knew what more was in store. Hulu sat on Lulu’s table, So, he couldn’t concentrate on teacher’s fable. Every night Lulu packed his bag, With books and stationery, nothing to lag. Hulu would take them out when Lulu went to roam, Just to leave the books and stationery back at home.
Activity 3: Children’s Book: • Blank square to put an emotion sticker and write their
Hulu pulled Lulu’s friend’s hair, When they blamed Lulu, Lulu cried out “It’s not fair!”. Hulu confused Lulu on the playground, Lulu’s friends laughed in the crowd.
46 Lulu got in a lot of trouble, But no one saw the naughty double. Since Hulu could not be seen by any, Lulu was looked at differently by many. Activity 4: Only for teacher’s book: (30 cards, 5 situations 6 times) • Divide the class in 6 different groups. • Give each group 5 situation card each. • Tell them to talk about how each of them would feel in the given situation. • Talk in class about the discussion and discuss if everyone had the same answer or did the answers vary. • Talk about the differences and if they’re having trouble in identifying some emotions, help them with the chart provided as a part of the book. (Tear the chart and put it up in the class) Situations: • You won a prize you didn’t expect. (Happy) • Your pet got injured. (Sad) • Your friend pointed out that you have something stuck in your teeth and it’s been there since breakfast. (Embarrassed) • You found that your sibling/friend ate the chocolate you were saving for later. (Angry)
• Your friend got a new toy that you have been wanting for a long time. (Jealous) The problem became a lot bigger, When size became the real trigger. Lulu started to shrink down, And Hulu wore the bigger gown. Lulu felt upset, low and helpless, He did not like how loose suddenly was his dress. His bed also seemed huge, He could not even find refuge. Activity 5: Only for Teacher’s Book: Part 1 • To make children understand the height part better, you can relate it to confidence. • As an activity, you can ask everyone to stand up and look happy. • Then tell them to look sad and droopy. • Tell them how when people are said, they droop and look shorter. Part 2 • Play Emotion Dumb Charades
47 • Divide class in 2 groups. • Call one student from a group and give him an emotion from the chart to act out. • The student cannot use anything apart from his body language to express the emotion. • Have time limit for the entire game and the team that guesses more emotions win!
• I’d like someone to ______________, so I will also _________________. • I’d like someone to ______________, so I will also _________________. • I’d like someone to ______________, so I will also _________________. Teacher’s Book:
Lulu’s old friends saw how he got smaller, And their worries only became taller. Lulu lost more than 5 inches, His friends could now clearly see the differences. Activity 6: Children’s Book: The children have a tearable poster in their book. They should take it and put it up in their homes. The poster says “Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t want them to do to you.” To understand the quote better, they have to fill in the blanks: • I wouldn’t want someone to _____________, so I won’t _____________ anyone else. • I wouldn’t want someone to _____________, so I won’t _____________ anyone else. • I wouldn’t want someone to _____________, so I won’t _____________ anyone else. Following the negatives, will be the positives:
Encourage children to think how they would feel if they saw their friend feeling unhappy and sad and what would they possibly do to make them feel better? • Divide them in groups of two. • One child pretends to be upset/sad/etc, while the other child tries to console him, or make him/her feel better. • Switch roles. Here, we can introduce the whole concept of sympathy and empathy. You can take help of the following paragraph to help explain. There are two kinds of support we can give our friends when they are sad. One is called sympathy and another is empathy. In both the cases, the first step is to listen to our friends properly when they talk about their problems and have a kind expression on our face. Sympathy is to feel bad for your friend when they are telling you something sad. However, empathy takes sympathy a little further and we show how deeply we understand our friend. Usually,
48 this means that something very similar has happened to us and we really do feel what our friend feels when we realize the situation they’re in. We could say, ‘That happened to me once, and it made me so mad.’ Even if we haven’t been in a similar situation, we can still feel and show empathy by looking at the situation the way another person sees it.
He cried and sighed and told her all, About how all the shots Hulu would call. He spoke about how disturbing he gets, Making him cry and run with sweats. Activity 8: Teacher’s Book:
Friends started to think of ways, To help Lulu find his rays. Someone told them about the Elephant, Eli, Who they said, had magic in her belly! Five of them set out to look for her, They were ready to travel through thorns and fur. Activity 7: Children’s Book:
• Blow in a balloon and ask the children what will happen if you don’t stop blowing. • Using that as a metaphor, you can explain how if emotions are not shared, they can also end up bursting inside you. It’s important to vent things out. • Tell them the importance of sharing their feelings with an adult. • Give them a task of going home and talking to their parents about how they felt throughout the day.
• Help find the right way through the jungle. Maze game.
• Talk about the importance of helping each other.
As he spoke, his size grew back some, He was glad that he had come. Eli told him not to worry, “Everything will get better, do not hurry.”
Finally, they reached the deeper end, Eli the elephant welcomed everyone like a friend. She saw Lulu and asked what’s wrong, Lulu’s feelings became too strong.
“You are never alone in this world,” Said Ellie as she swirled. Look how much love your friends have for you, You are one of the lucky few.
Teacher’s Book:
49 Activity 9: Children’s Book: • Two pages of coloured strips with empathy quotes Teacher’s Book: Chain of empathy and communication. Each child has two sheets of perforated strips with quotes on them. • Ask them to partner up with someone new. • One partner should tear up the blue strips and the other should tear the yellow ones. • They should each write acts of kindnesses they did in the last one week on each of the strips. • Following that, they can weave one blue and one yellow strip into a chain by making circles out of them. • Once done, they should make a second one where they use the other colour left with them. • In the end, each student should have their own chain of empathy that they can hang above their beds at home. Eli swung her trunk above her head, And he saw some sparkle getting spread. In a minute, they turned into small colourful berries, Lulu wondered if she was one of the fairies! Picking up the berries in red,
“This represents the love of family and friends,” she said. She told him how they all can help, Lulu was focusing on how lovely they smelt. There were also berries in green, yellow, white and blue, Each represented an area new. Eli told Lulu about what each meant, Talking, exercising, eating and good health. “Keep these berries as a reminder,” she said with a smile, “Things will get better in a while, Always talk to someone about how you feel, Hulu will ultimately kneel.” Activity 10: Children’s Book: • Take out the stickers on the berries and place them in the respective slots. Lulu followed Eli’s words, And he was soon singing with the birds. He came back to his normal size, Hulu was now the friends with the little flies. Lulu kept visiting Eli, Who did not just have magic in her belly. He got better with every meeting, With love, he was being treated.
50 Activity 11: • A number of perforated postcards are available to the children at the back of their books. • They should tear them, write their message and give them to their friends. Activity 12: Children’s Book: Write down 4 things you learnt from this book.
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Takeaway Coming up with my final content was a very long process. It took me days to first come up with a plot that is suitable, followed by contacting more and more people who could help me with the polishing of the story. It was very challenging to track down individuals who were willing to spend their time to help me with my project. Dealing with a class full of 20 children was also a challenge on its own. It took me almost a month to get a school to agree for the workshop and I was really glad when the children seem to enjoy the activities. The workshop showed me the importance of practical knowledge because I know I would have over looked a lot of details had I not tried out my content in front of a live audience.
Visual iterations and Story boarding iterations
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visual style Coming up with a visual style for children was a lot of fun. Since, my content was taking so long to get done, I started experimenting with styles from the beginning itself. I tried on a number of mediums and took inspiration from some of the best children’s books. The inspiration for my final visual style came from the illustrations of Maurice Sendak from his book “Where the wild things are�. It took a lot of patience and hard work to finish the whole book using a visual style that demanded so much work and rework.
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Medium : Ink and Paints
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Medium : Colour Pencils
Medium : Watercolours
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Medium : Digital Illustrations
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The inspiration for my final visual style came from the illustrations of Maurice Sendak from his book “Where the wild things are�. I first drew the illustration on paper using colourful felt pens, scanned it and took it on photoshop to add colours.
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Story boarding - 1
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64 I decided to explore a little more with the layout and the possibilities of making this book more than just a one time read. Mr. Riddhesh Adarkar helped me through my visualization phase and showed me a some great resources. One such interesting project was “The Bible of Barbecue — Tramontina”. This project showed me how I can make the book more of an experience rather than just a sitting book with a running storyline. My whole idea evolved from this point and became a lot more interactive and enjoyable for the children.
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Story boarding - 2
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This version had a lot more modified layouts and ideas. I built my final book based on a lot from here itself.
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Takeaway It was quite a challenge to come up with a good visual style especially since illustrations are not exactly my strong point. Making those story boards and prototypes helped a lot because it made it a lot easier for me to imagine what the final book would look like. I would have easily gotten lost in the process had I not made the exact prototypes. Also, I must mention the constant help Mr. Riddhesh Adarkar offered, which helped me be on track and come up with a much better visual language than I would have on my own.
the final process
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process The visual style I choose was not a very simple one. It had a very long and complicated process. For that, I first had to draw all my illustrations by hand, followed by inking them with coloured felt pens. This illustration was then scanned and placed on a photoshop canvas where it was ultimately filled with colours. The process was more complicated for some spreads where I had decided to go for isometric grids to enable the imaginary friend – Hulu to become a part of the illustration in a 3-D way. For these illustrations, I had to use the grids and follow the already long process.
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character development
Rabbits and Bees
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Lulu, the lion
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Tigers
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Bears
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Elly, the elephant
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Final Characters
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pen and ink
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isometric grid
I had to make some of the spreads in an isometric grid because of wanting to use a 3-D character.
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I took help of the light table to make these particular spreads.
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digitalization
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Just before the final touches on the spread
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prototype
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Takeaway The final making of the book was a very long and reflecting process. At every step, I either learnt something new or surprised myself with the work that I was capable of doing. I had a lot of fun working with the isometric grids on the light table. It was very exciting to see it working out as I planned. The whole idea of using 3-D characters, popups and tearable collaterals evolved during the process and it just kept becoming more and more fun! Making a proper prototype was the best decision I took. Making it helped me see where my flaws were and gave me a chance to correct them before the final printing. I also got a chance to rework all the mistakes that I had made. I enjoyed this part of the process the most.
the final books
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fonts used Aa
DK Cool Crayon
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789
Aa
DK MIDNIGHT CHALKER
ABCDEFG HIJKLMNOPQRSTUV WXYZ
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Final Reflection, Acknowledgements and Bibliography
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final reflection I feel that this project is a perfect end to my journey at Srishti. I had so much fun doing this project and was constantly surprised at the kind of outputs I was producing. Though it was very long and tedious process, the idea of creating something so meaningful always kept me at my toes. This book became a lot more than a book in the end. It became more of an experience not just for anyone who decides to give it a read but also for me because it reminds me of all the hurdles I faced at every phase of this project and how I overcame them (you can read about them at the end of every phase of this doc book). Not only did I go through a lot of references but I also got familiar with some amazing work that artists and writers have done all around the world. From my research and understanding, I can say with utmost certainty that this is really a project that is very much needed in our country. Children will not only enjoy this but will also grow up to be much better functioning adults with not just general knowledge but also a high emotional quotient. This project, again, opened my eyes to the number of possibilities that are available in the field of psychology. There is so much talk around mental health but very little work done. This project was my small attempt to do something and give back to the world.
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Acknowledgements It would have been impossible to complete this project without the help and constant feedback of a number of people. First and foremost, I would like to thank my facilitators, Mrs. Meena Vari, Mr. Sai Krishna Mulpuru and Mr. Allan Parker for always being there whenever I needed help or advice. I would also like to thank NIMHANS for giving me the opportunity to think of a project like this. A big thank you goes out to Mr. Govind Ganesh who helped me right from choosing a good topic to proof reading my final content and in between, putting me in touch with the right people and giving more and more creative ideas for the book’s activities. I would have been very lost without his constant help. Mr. Riddhesh Adarkar was also always a call away. Not only did he help me figure out the whole visual language of the book but also kept introducing me to new and interesting projects that gave me a lot of inspiration. I cannot thank him enough for the constant valuable feedback he gave me for my work. Apart from that, I would like to thank Dr. Eesha, Ms. Suchitra Narayan, Mrs. Rohini Bhagani, Ms. Ankita Agarwal, Mrs. Ananhitha Batha and Mr. Johnson Jament for taking out time from their busy routines and giving me feedback on my content. I would like to mention Hilton High School for allowing me to interact with their students and helping me with my whole project. I might have not been able to get in touch with any school if it wasn’t for my friend, Sujat Roy. Last but not the least, I would like to thank Mr. Biswamit Dwibedy for his help with coming up for a name for my book. I should also mention my parents, Ms. Manjari Singh, Mr. Jayaditya Sirasani and Mrs. Shilpa Gupta for their help in the process. I am sorry if I missed out names but a big shout out to everyone without whom this project would not have been possible.
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bibliography Berk, Laura E. Child Development. Boston: Pearson, 2013. Harper, Laura, and Laura Harper. “Using Picture Books to Promote Social Emotional Literacy.” Academia.edu - Share Research. Accessed February 01, 2019. https://www.academia.edu/26817763/Using_Picture_Books_to_Promote_Social_Emotional_ Literacy. Meggitt, Carolyn. CACHE Level 2 Introduction to Early Years Education and Care. London: Hodder Education, 2015. “Mental Health Conditions Depicted In Children’s Movies.” RebelCircus.com. December 02, 2016. Accessed January 21, 2019. https://www.rebelcircus.com/blog/mental-health-conditions-depicted-childrens-movies/. Price, Charis L., Michaelene Ostrosky, and Rosa Milagros Santos Gilbertz. “Reflecting on Books That Include Characters with Disabilities.” JAMA - Journal of the American Medical Association. January 01, 1970. Accessed January 30, 2019. https://experts.illinois.edu/en/publications/reflecting-on-books-that-include-characters-with-disabilities. “The Book Matters! Choosing Complex Narrative Texts to ...” Accessed January 26, 2019. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/ pubs/yc/sep2015/book-matters. “The Live Love Laugh Foundation.” School Programs - The Live Love Laugh Foundation. Accessed February 1, 2019. https:// thelivelovelaughfoundation.org/. “Worried about Changes in Your Child’s Mood or Behavior?” Mayo Clinic. March 01, 2018. Accessed February 03, 2019. https:// www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/childrens-health/in-depth/mental-illness-in-children/art-20046577. Brasil, J.Walter Thompson. YouTube. April 29, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l1glIKMtqE. Behance. “Where Are You - Personalised Search-and-find Book.” Behance. Accessed 2019. https://www.behance.net/ gallery/75616919/Where-Are-You-Personalised-search-and-find-book. “40 Kindness Activities & Empathy Worksheets for Students and Adults.” Positive Psychology Program - Your One-Stop PP Resource! January 15, 2019. Accessed 2019. https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/kindness-activities-empathy-worksheets/. ”5 Activities for Building Empathy in Your Students.” Inclusion Lab. Accessed 2019. https://blog.brookespublishing.com/5activities-for-building-empathy-in-your-students/.
THESIS PROJECT 2019
Examiner 1 (name and signature):
TAIL - A - FRIEND
Examiner 2 (name and signature):
An illustrated childrens book and a teacher’s supplement
STUDENT: Nishi Banka PROJECT:
Medians of the Mind
SPONSOR: Self initiated PROGRAM: Undergraduate Professional Programme AWARD:
Visual Communication & Strategic Branding
Final Examination Panel COMMENTS:
Examiner 3 (name and signature): Date: Academic Dean:
NISHI BANKA Final Thesis Project 2019 (Undergraduate Professional Programme) Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology Bangalore - 560064 Karnataka