Zoe and Zak's Brainy Adventure (book 3)

Parents & Carers

Hi caregivers, well done on journeying with your child through the first 3 books.

Our nervous systems are incredible, and so you are setting a brilliant example to your child by joining them in all this learning.

After you have worked through the discussion questions and bonus online content, perhaps you could print off a worksheet above and take it to your child’s next medical appointment?

People all around the world can use these books as a platform to speak the same language as your health professional, and improve the tricky decision-making processes that come with the challenge of persisting pain.

Parents

Clinicians

Welcome back healthcare professionals! Unpacking the complexity of the brain can be quite daunting when providing care to a child challenged by pain, but our hope is that this book will be a conversation-starting point.

Recent research on predictive processing has provided an alternative method of understanding different ‘levels’ of the nervous system, and how it adapts and acts upon identified threats.

COPI items that may change the most with this book:

5. Pain is a warning that the body needs to be protected.
6. Feeling pain for a long time can make the brain more sensitive to warning messages.
14. The brain processes lots of details before you feel pain.

For extended reading, we encourage you to dig into Louie Gifford’s mature organism model.

Page 13 of this third book is a helpful starting point to work through and apply – so we made a worksheet (see q6 on the Kids page) for you to print off and share with children. The goals here are a sense of awe and increased interest, to stimulate longer term changes and a strong commitment to treatment strategies.

Clinicians

Teachers

G’Day teachers, grab the worksheets and run with them however you would like to.

Again, if you have feedback, ideas, stories, or suggestions, please contact us.

Our goal is to continue to improve the resources available.

As access to VR technology improves, books like this one will become more commonplace, so it’s great that you are leading the way!

Downloadable Activities

Puppet show

Colour in and cut out the characters, then tape onto your fingers to re-enact the Brainy Adventure story!

Brain messages

Think about things in your life that may make your feeling of pain go up or down.

Do you want to see the online activities (parents, clinicians, & teachers) for the other books in the series?

A book cover, 8-year-old Zoe is dressed in workwear including a yellow hardhat ad is holding a hammer. Her uncle Ozzie is also dressed in workwear and hard hat. Behind them both is a ladder on a dark green background.

A book cover, 8 year-old Zoe is at her Grandma's science lab, they are both wearing white lab coats. There are some experiments going on behind them on a white cupboard on a blue background.

A book cover, the two kids Zoe and Zak have virtual reality headsets on. Behind them is the school classroom whiteboard showing a brain. Red background.

A book cover, the kids Zoe and Zak are in fancy dress - Zoe in a dinosaur costume and Zak as a Knight but with a red bike helmet. They are standing in front of a tree house on a purple background. Green leaves are falling all around.

A book cover, 8 year-old Zoe is dressed in her soccer uniform and proudly showing us a piece of paper with her action plan on it. Streamers, a soccer ball and a diary are behind her, all on a yellow background.

Also, here are the links to the Kid's pages for each book:

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