Feelings Thermometer - Free Resource

When working with children and families struggling with anxiety or anger, I regularly use a feeling thermometer in the early stages of our work together. A feelings thermometer is a scaling tool to assist children in recognising the different intensities or levels of an emotion. We talk about what they might notice (both internally and externally) as they move up the feelings thermometer. This helps children, and their parents, begin to notice when they are starting to become anxious or angry, providing an opportunity to implement strategies before the feelings escalate and become more challenging. It also creates a shared language to talk about feelings and assists with emotional literacy.

When beginning to implement the strategy with children and families, I often encourage parents/carers to raise the child’s awareness of where they might be on the feelings thermometer. For example, “I notice that you are feeling worried, where do you think you are on the feelings thermometer right now?” I also encourage parents/carers to model using the thermometer themselves. For example, parents/carers can say “I’m feeling frustrated, I’m a 4 on the thermometer, which is in the yellow, so I’m going to take a break to calm myself down.”

This tool is best suited to older children, however sometimes when working with younger children I might simplify it by using a 3 or 5 level scale.

I have created a free feelings thermometer which is available on my website to download. Click here to download for free.