Copy Me

 Little Bean does one. You do the same one. That is the whole book.

A big smile. Arms out to the sides. Arms all the way up, then just one. Reach for something. Lean over, not too far. Jump, with both feet off the floor. Sleepy eyes. Very, very still.

Ten things to copy, and they come down in order. Loud and big at the start, quiet at the end, because a body that is already going fast cannot be talked into stillness. An instruction to sit still arrives too early to be useful. So this book starts where the child already is and comes down with them.

Nothing to read. Nothing to get right. No page you have to have seen first. A child who only wants one of them, eleven times, has used the whole book.

On every left-hand page Little Bean does the pose. On every right-hand page there is a faded shape in the same pose, waiting on a small green stage, and one word: now you.

Then, at the back, it turns around. You do one. Any one you like. Make it up. And Big Bean copies you.

FOR GROWN-UPS

This one needs two people, which is what makes it the youngest book in the range. A child copying a face or a shape is doing something a child on their own cannot do. It works long before a child can follow an instruction, look something up, or say what is wrong.

The order matters. Press, reach and jump are effort. Leaning and sleepy eyes are the way down. Very, very still is last because it is the hardest, not because it is the goal.

The reversal at the back matters more than any of the poses. When the child makes one up and the grown-up copies it, the direction changes. Being matched by somebody steady is the part that does the work, and it is the part no book can do on its own.

A child may only want one pose, or the same pose eleven times, or to shut the book after two. All of those are a complete use of it.

There is a note for parents, teachers and SENCOs at the back, and a page listing every pose on its own, so any of them can be used at any time, anywhere, without the book in your hands.

This book supports everyday emotional awareness. It is not a screening tool and it is not a substitute for professional guidance.

From the Little Signals world: quiet stories and tools that help small humans notice their signals and find their way back to steady. No quick fixes. No hype. Regulation before optimisation.