Stop That Angry Thought Cards

by Max Nass, LMHC

Here's a deck of cards that teaches children how to manage their anger. Using two internal dialog techniques—Thought Stopping and Self-Talk—kids can stop anger in its tracks. By simply playing cards, they learn to envision a stop sign whenever their anger is triggered and to replace their angry thoughts with more positive responses.

The deck includes 37 pairs of cards, and each pair includes a "situation" card and a corresponding "response" card. As youngsters react to hypothetical situations that might normally trigger anger, they see a big red stop sign on each response card—a cue to stop the angry thought and come up with a better alternative.

You can use Stop That Angry Thought to play either of two familiar card games, Concentration or Go Fish.