Cancer doesn’t just impact the patient, but the whole family, including kids.

As a result, a dual-certified child life specialist and therapist has made a new resource available to help kids understand a cancer diagnosis.

“There is a guide at the front of the workbook that explains how to use it. It has a child-friendly terms and their definitions of different cancer and therapeutic terms for adults to use,” said Kelsey Mora, the creator of “The Dot Method – An Interactive Tool to Teach Kids About Cancer” - a workbook now available online.

The workbook doesn’t just explain what cancer is, but also helps kids understand their feelings and how to cope.

“It talks about how to handle a good day or a difficult day. Who's in your support system? Who can you turn to? What are things you can do on a hard day? What are things that help you feel happier and calmer?” Mora said.

The workbook is dedicated to the Welker family. One of Mora’s best friends, Laura Welker, was the first to use the workbook when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021.

“After the initial panic, it was how am I going to tell my kids? How am I going to possibly explain this to them because they were five and two at the time,” Welker said.

Thankfully, Welker, a nurse, reached out to Mora right away.

“I had already made the workbook. It was on a document on my computer. And you know, I said, ‘Well, I have this workbook. I can send it to you. Maybe you can use it with your boys,’” Mora said.

The workbooks consists of a series of worksheets Mora created. She called it “The Dot Method” because kids draw dots to illustrate what is happening in a person’s body after a cancer diagnosis.

Laura printed out the worksheets for her son, Charlie, who was five at the time.

“I basically just had to put dots on a person,” Charlie said. “So basically, you had to first choose a color for each type of cell. So like, for example, you could do red for healthy cells, purple for cancer cells and green for treatment.”

“Step by step, he kind of talked about the healthy cells and where the healthy cells were in the body and then what cancer cells mean,” Laura said.

Laura and her husband both say the worksheets helped them simplify a scary time.

“Having this resource to kind of go through what chemo might change my body and my demeanor from day to day really was helpful,” Laura said.

Mora recently published “The Dot Method” and is selling it online . She is also reaching out to hospitals and other support groups to help get the workbooks in more hands.

“Kids can write, they can draw. It's for all ages. So giving kids a tool that is interactive is what I felt like it was missing in the space of the resources that already exist,” Mora said.

“It would just help them get a better understanding of what they're going through,” said Charlie Welker, now age 9.

With her cancer now in remission, Laura is grateful that chapter of her life is now part of a book that will help other families cope.