Resource Sheets for working with Emotions

Transcription

1 Resource Sheets for working with Emotions Children with Autism often need to be taught to recognise and manage their own emotions as well as other people s emotions. We will provide you with an easy step by step guide to working with emotions, and give you a number of expression photographs to get you started. Step 1 Define an emotion e.g. happy/sad/angry etc. (in language appropriate to the age and understanding of the child). So for example; angry is how we feel when someone has taken one of our toys and won t give it back. Look at photographs of faces showing that emotion.

2 Get the child to try to show the emotion on his own face whilst looking in a mirror. Ask him to look at what happens to the eyes? mouth? nose? eyebrows? Record on a face template (which you can easily draw on card or paper as a simple oval shape and then cut out). Describe and write on the template e.g. the mouth is wide open and the eyebrows are pointing down when I am feeling shocked. Step 2 Ask your child to think about times when he feels the emotion and discuss this with him. What happens to make him feel the emotion? Record this either as a picture or in a simple sentence on a piece of paper.

3 Step 3 Ask your child what happens inside your body when you feel the emotion? Ask him to focus on the feeling in his head and stomach. Encourage him to use comparisons to describe, e.g., happy feels like when I learnt to ride my bike. Draw and write these feelings on a simple person outline (draw a simple outline of a body on to card or paper and cut it out). Use colour if it is helpful, e.g., happy is the colour yellow.? Step 4 (an Extension Activity) Talk with your child about how an emotion makes him react. If the behaviour is not acceptable, discuss alternatives with him.

4 Make an Action Plan (again write and draw it on paper) to try and behave in acceptable ways in response to this emotion and link it to a reward system (e.g. stickers for young children, monetary/particular activity rewards for older children). You can also write a Social Story around this emotion if helpful. You may wish to keep this work in a special book or file so that it can be used again in the future. You can get free self-rating scales for emotions to develop this further at: In the following 20 pages are a number of photographs that you can use to start helping your child to understand emotions. Good Luck Dave Angel

5 Upset

6 Surprised

7 Shy

8 Shy

9 Sad

10 Loving/friends

11 Happy

12 Happy

13 Jealous

14 I m OK

15 Happy

16 Happy Christmas

17 Frightened

18 Excited

19 Excited

20 Love/sharing a joke

21 Confused

22 Sharing

23 Angry

24 Angry