Creating Awareness of and Controlling Emotions

Emotional issues such as anger or anxiety are common in children with ASD. Understanding feelings and emotions, regulating them, and learning to express them in an appropriate manner are difficult skills for individuals with ASD. Scholars in the field have developed resources that assist parents and professionals as they work with individuals with ASD to develop these needed skills.

Exploring Feelings (Attwood, 2004)

The Cognitive Behavior Therapy program, Exploring Feelings, was designed for small groups of two to five children between the ages of 9 and 12 years, with two adults conducting the program. However, it can easily be modified to be used with just one child. Two workbooks were devised to accompany the program, one is designed to explore and manage anxiety through a series of highly structured, interesting activities that encourage the cognitive control of emotions. The other explores anger.

References

Attwood, T. (2004). Exploring feelings: Cognitive behavior therapy to manage anxiety. Arlington, TX: Future Horizons.

Attwood, T. (2004). Exploring feelings: Cognitive behavior therapy to manage anger. Arlington, TX: Future Horizons.

The Incredible 5-point Scale

This scale is designed to help students with ASD understand and control their emotional reactions to daily events that might otherwise set in motion escalating reactions. Whether it is inappropriate touching, obsessions, yelling, hitting or making hurtful statements to classmates, this clearly illustrated book shows how to break down a given behavior and, with the student’s active participation, develop a unique scale that identifies the problem. Just as important, it also suggests alternative, positive behaviors at each level of the scale.

Reference

Buron, K., & Curtis, M. (2004). Incredible 5-point scale: Assisting students with autism spectrum disorders in understanding social interactions and controlling their emotional responses. Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger Publishing Company.

When My Worries Get Too Big! (Buron, 2006)

This book gives young children an opportunity to explore with parents or teachers their feelings as they react to events in their daily lives while learning some useful relaxation techniques. This strategy can help children with ASD to be aware of and control their own feelings about everyday events to which they might react emotionally.

Reference

Buron, K. (2006). When my worries get too big! A relaxation book for children who live with anxiety. Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger Publishing Company.

My Book Full of Feelings (Jaffe & Gardner, 2006)

The strategy presented in this book helps teach children to identify, access the intensity of, and respond appropriately to their emotions. The book is fully interactive and uses a dry-erase marker so that unique situations and solutions can be added and changed with a wipe of a paper towel. A home-school interactive communication worksheet is an added feature.

Reference

Jaffe, A., & Gardner, L. (2006). My book full of feelings: How to control and react to the size of your emotions. Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger Publishing Company.