Squeak!

One of the goals I 'm working on with a fair-skinned kindergarten boy is to help him learn how to stand up for himself effectively when he's bothered or teased by his peers. I'm teaching him to make good eye contact and to use a calm, strong voice as opposed to a mousy or monster voice. Well, the other day I handed him a mirror and asked him to practice telling someone to stop, using all three types of voices: calm, mousy, and monster. I expected him to say something like, "Stop. I don't like that", and I asked him to start by using his mousy voice  which is supposed to sound very shrill and scared. Holding the mirror, he quickly glanced at me through long-lashed blue eyes, then looked back in the mirror and said in a tiny little voice, "Squeak!" Oh dear, I think we need more practice!