Dear Reader, thank you for your support for our book - Talking Fingers. It's been quite some time since I blogged about resources for our children. Let's get back to it with getting to know an awesome website for teaching social emotional learning skills to our children on the spectrum. This is going to be a long post as this website offers five different programs which in turn have multiple levels. The five programs are:
Zoo Academy - Once the kiddo creates an avatar, they can start playing the various games that focus on six key areas:
Impulse Control - the ability to control your behaviours
Emotion regulation - the ability to identify and manage your feelings
Empathy - the ability to identify and understand other's feelings
Cooperation - working together with others as a team
Social initiation - knowing when and how to work and play with others and
Communication - what you say and how you say it.
The child is introduced to various animals that are struggling in these key areas and he/she has to help them. This removes the focus from the child and they learn well in the process of teaching/helping someone else. The games are short but very helpful in reinforcing the skills.
Zoo U - This is the next level and there are thirty games here, five each for the six skills mentioned above. They focus on the next level of mastering these crucial skills. The games are locked and open soon as he/she completes the level. The best part is the personal feedback they receive that guides them to master the various mini games and learn many important aspects along the way.
SS Grin - This program is my personal favourite as it focusses on skills that are so important but unfortunately not given a lot of importance in many other similar resources. The skills included are:
Respect - being kind, caring about the feelings of others, sharing, listening and being responsible for what we say and do.
Think ahead - considering consequences, identifying good role models and setting goals for the future.
Stop and think - thinking about the consequences of our actions and making good decisions when faced with temptation
Communication - what we say and how we say it to help others understand us and listening to understand others.
Check it out - understanding the situation without making assumptions to see things from other person's point of view
Building friendship - knowing what qualities make a good friend and taking the initial step toward making friends
Cooperation - working together toward a common goal
Emotion regulation - understanding how your emotions work and using strategies to manage them.
The many levels in this program will contribute towards a better understanding of these skills as your kiddo uses them to solve the various difficulties they encounter in the games.
Hall of heroes - This program is older children and has the feel of a video game. The six skills focused in this program are - Impulse control, Emotion regulation, Empathy, cooperation, Social initiation and communication. Though these skills are the same as those in the first two programs, here they are dealt with in depth via multiple games that encourage your kiddo to apply these skills as they navigate the different scenarios in these games.
Stories in motion - This is an interactive program for Autistics as they create personalized social narratives using dialogues and thought options. The various scenarios included are - anxiety, bullying, personal space, coping, perspective taking, sportsmanship, transitions, etc.
In addition to these amazing interactive games, the website also offers free resources for all the skills covered in this program! I am sure you must be thinking that this must be a very expensive one. This can be purchased as annual license to their website and let's your child explore all the programs. I recommend starting from the beginning level as it builds a solid foundation. Now coming to the price; single user license costs $12/year. Shocked by the pocket friendly price, right? I felt the same! What are you waiting for? Go ahead and check out the website:
