Many children (and adults!) get stuck in black and white, all or nothing, this or that, love it or hate it thinking patterns. Whatever you want to call them, they are not very helpful in developing flexible thinking. We think it is important for children to learn that we like things at different levels so that they can begin to be more flexible in thinking about things in their lives. We recommend that you create a Levels of Like visual with your family and work together to name the levels. We have included a couple of examples below:
Younger Children:
1- Strongly Dislike
2- Dislike
3- Okay
4- Like
5- Love
Older Children and Adolescents:
0- Despise
1- Awful
2- Strongly dislike
3- Dislike
4- Meh
5- Okay/Maybe
6- Fine
7- Like it
8- Awesome
9- Yay, yay, yay!
10- Love it!
Talking about Levels of Like at home not only supports flexible thinking but also promotes building your people files about your family. Knowing the Levels of Like of family members can help children to better understand their family and make smart guesses about what others may want to play, gifts they may like, and things they like to talk about!