The Emp Detective Agency
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EDA
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The Emp Detective Agency 🕵️♀️ EDA 🕵️
Emotional Wellbeing Resources
Welcome to The Emp Detective Agency.
A playful, psychology-informed way to help children build emotional literacy. On this page you’ll find practical resources to support children to become investigators of their own emotional experinces.
This page contains activities and tools to help children recognise emotions, understand why they show up, and practise safe ways to respond, whether you’re working 1:1, in small groups, or in the classroom.
The Emp Detective Agency
🕵️♀️
EDA
🕵️
The Emp Detective Agency 🕵️♀️ EDA 🕵️
Welcome to The Emp Detective Agency, a playful, engaging and psychologically informed approach to supporting children to understand their emotions.
Designed by an Educational Psychologist, the Emp Detective Agency uses curiosity, storytelling and hands-on exploration to help children become “detectives” of their own inner world. Rather than focusing on managing or reducing emotions, this approach supports children to notice, name and make sense of what they are feeling.
Through a series of structured but flexible activities, children learn that emotions are not problems to fix, but important sources of information. By externalising emotions as “Emps,” children are able to explore feelings safely, without judgement or shame.
Within this section, you will find a range of ready-to-use resources designed to:
build emotional awareness
develop emotional language
support self-regulation
encourage help-seeking and connection
These resources can be used in 1:1 work, small group interventions, or whole class teaching, making them adaptable to a range of school contexts.
The Emp Detective Agency provides a clear starting point for developing emotional literacy in a way that is accessible, meaningful and rooted in psychological understanding, helping children to become curious, confident and compassionate in how they understand themselves and others.
Popular
A playful introduction to emotional awareness:
The Emp Hunt is a fun, engaging and psychologically informed way to introduce children to the world of emotions through curiosity, movement and play.
Designed by an Educational Psychologist, this resource uses the Emp Detective framework to help children begin to notice, name and explore emotions in a way that feels safe, accessible and meaningful. Rather than sitting and talking about emotions, children actively search for them, building understanding through discovery.
As children hunt for the Emps, they are gently guided to:
notice emotional clues
make links between feelings and situations
begin to develop the language of emotions
understand that all feelings are valid and informative
This approach draws on key psychological principles, including learning through play, experiential engagement and scaffolding emotional literacy in developmentally appropriate ways.
The Emp Treasure Hunt can be used flexibly:
as a whole class activity to introduce The Emps
in small groups to support discussion and connection
or in 1:1 work to gently explore individual experiences
It provides a powerful starting point for the Emp Detective Agency, helping children step into the role of “Emp Detectives”, curious, reflective and ready to explore their inner world.
Coming Soon: Emp Detective Friendship Files
A playful, supportive set of Emp case files helping children investigate friendship feelings, build empathy and strengthen belonging.
Coming Soon: Emp Detective Learning Files
Helping children investigate the emotions of learning, from getting stuck to feeling proud, with curiosity and compassion.
The Emp Detective Agency
🕵️♀️
EDA
🕵️
The Emp Detective Agency 🕵️♀️ EDA 🕵️
“Every emotion leaves clues. Emp Detectives know where to look and what to do!”
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