Interoception - Linking Body Sensations To Feelings & Emotions

 

                                                

Interoception is the hidden sense that plays a vital role in helping us decode our body's signals by recognizing them and interpreting them accurately. This is very important and crucial for us not just for understanding body signals of hunger, thirst, etc. but also feelings and emotions before they overwhelm us. But unfortunately, many children on the Autism Spectrum struggle with this. I have been searching for a good resource to teach these elusive skills to my son and found this gem! This review is for the digital resource bundle, please explore and pick and choose as needed.

Visual and engaging social narrative introduction to Interoception that stresses the importance of noticing the body sensations and linking them to emotions.

A huge collection of visuals that will help them explain how they experience the feelings and emotions in different body parts.

Understand and learn Interoception vocabulary in a play based format.

Level 2 bingo card game 

Body mapping -  a visual way to interpret body signals to feelings

                       This one is an editable play based card game that doubles up as a memory game.

                                                  

A simple activity card and follow up questions that encourage him/her to feel the body signals.

               Body sensations thermometer that help them understand and rate body signals as small, medium or huge and act accordingly.

                                          

Interoception board game!

This is a small brief introduction of the ten resources available in this bundle. I didn't explain it in detail as it would become a really big post. I am sharing the link to the bundle that lists all the individual resources too. I hope you find something that suits your kiddo's needs. 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Interoception-Linking-body-sensations-to-feelings-emotions-Growing-Bundle-7096021

Jolly Kids Picture Talk & Conversation Book

 

                                                        

Hi friends, today the product I am reviewing is a book but is equally a fun therapy game, social emotional learning resource and helpful in developing language & conversation skills as well as story telling! Intrigued? Read on..

This book has 40 chapters, each one comes with many attractive pictures that portray the everyday life in its many facets thereby helping your kiddo, learn new vocabulary, understand different scenarios and gain comprehension skills. Some of the scenarios covered in the chapters of this book are - family, bedtime, getting dressed, birthday party, annual function, restaurant, zoo, shopping, etc. Let's take a look:

Your kiddo will learn the vocabulary associated with the various scenarios, build sentences and stories and you can include some social emotional learning by asking questions about how a character is feeling, the reason, how would he/she feel in their place; develop problem solving skills and much much more.

You can purchase this from Amazon India

Two Amazing Free Resources To Teach Problem-Solving Skills

 

                                                      

Dear reader, today I am going to share details of two massive free resources to teach the all important - problem solving skills to our children and young adults. These freebies are created by Melissa a SLP and founder creator of The Speech Therapy Store. Without further delay, let's check them out.

The first one is a free bundle of - Problem solving graphic organizer for grades K-12. This helps build the crucial skills of - Identifying the problem, finding the best possible solutions, identifying the consequences and choosing the best possible solution. It also includes more than 70 social problem scenarios to get you started and also blank ones to help you add personalized scenarios.

Amazing, right? Wait till you read about the second freebie! The next one is - 31 Best Wordless videos to teach problem solving skills. She has curated a collection of these wordless videos that are kid-appropriate and not just that, she went ahead and shared 31 sets of corresponding worksheets to go with these videos. Each set of worksheets include - identifying the problem and the solution, WH questions, Story retell with predictions and Sequencing.

Thanks a ton, Melissa for these wonderful freebies. I hope you find these as useful as we have.

https://www.speechtherapystore.com/social-problem-solving/

                              https://www.speechtherapystore.com/wordless-videos-to-teach-problem-solving/

Beating My Worries Workbook - Anxiety Management

 

                                                

Dear reader, this is my first post of the year and I want to wish you all a very happy and peaceful new year, where you worry less and laugh more. This year, let's focus on SEL that stands for social emotional learning and also covers executive functioning skills. No matter where our kids are on the Autism spectrum, this is one area where there is always scope for improvement. Then shall we get started?

Beating My Worries Workbook - Anxiety support resource is created by the teacher author - All Therapy Resources and I am in love with their resources. Anxiety and worries are a constant companion for our children and this workbook will help them learn to cope with them and more importantly give them tools to beat them! It is a sixty page digital resource that has short and easy to understand explanations for children of all ages and reflective worksheets. The topics covered include:

• What is anxiety and how it can impact you
• Why do you feel anxious - learning about your anxiety
• What causes anxiety?
• Anxiety and body activity - physical signs
• Catastrophe scale
• Calm thinking patterns and thermometer
• Body relaxation techniques and ques
• Exercise benefits
• Visualization
• Relaxation game and much much more..

Work through this book with your child and trust me, it will be an amazing experience as you get to know what worries them the most and help them learn techniques to cope with them. You can purchase this digital download HERE

Centervention - For Social Emotional Learning

 

                                                  

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:

https://www.centervention.com/

Resources To Teach Self-Regulation Skills

 

                           

                                          

Teaching Self-regulation and coping strategies for our children is a very essential skill that will help lead a better life. However, finding the correct resources to teach this tough skill is the challenge for parents and therapists. The three most often used programs throughout the world are :

Zones of regulation

The Incredible 5 point scale and

How does your engine run?

In this post, let's explore some of the digital resources developed by experienced teacher-authors. 

The above image is of - Self-regulation coping strategies developed by Basics.  This is a very  comprehensive digital resource that includes over 300 strategy cards to teach coping skills. 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Self-Regulation-Coping-Strategies-Social-Story-Charts-and-Posters-6120679

The second resource is Car speeds workbook developed by All therapy resources and is compatible with How does your engine run program. 

This digital resource is good for a beginner learner as it helps them ease into the program by teaching about the different emotional states, matching scenarios, emotions and physical sensations to car speeds and many more. You can purchase this resource here:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Car-Speeds-Workbook-How-Does-Your-Car-Engine-Run-3-speed--7768054

The third resource is Anxiety coping strategies for older children and is developed by Basics. It includes social stories and explicit step by step directions to teach 7 coping strategies.

You can purchase this here

 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Anxiety-Coping-Strategies-for-Middle-and-High-School-5925595

Play & Learn : Calendar Game

 

                                       

Calendar game from the house of abcya.com is a free online interactive game that will help our children learn many essential life skills. In this game, first the kiddo has to choose ten activities from among eighteen options available; some of them are beach, different games, art, video games, music, zoo and many more. Once the selection is completed, he/she has to read the clues given and select the correct date on the calendar. For instance, art class is on second Saturday of the month, then he/she has to select the appropriate date and the activity is scheduled. This way, there are ten clues to schedule the ten activities selected earlier. 

This fosters an essential life skill of learning to use calendar and schedule different activities; a skill that will serve them well in daily life. 

You can play this free game here:

https://www.abcya.com/games/calendar_word_problems

I hope you found this post useful. Many a time, we can use free, readily available resources to keep our kids engaged and learning vital skills while having fun. Screen time can be productive too! In this series of posts, we will explore such wonderful resources.

Flexible Thinking Activities

 

                                                      

Flexible thinking is an essential skill that is tough to master for our children but essential for their social emotional learning and leading a good life. This digital resource developed by Miss Dee's Homeroom simplifies the process of teaching our kids the skill. 

The topics covered in this resource are teaching our kids how our thoughts affect our bodies, differences between flexible and rigid thinking with multiple examples; learning to become a flexible thinker by visualizing change; learning to distinguish between what we can and can't control and adapt accordingly; consequences of being a flexible thinker/rigid thinker and much more. 

I am sharing the link to a bundle that contains both Google slides format and Boom cards, choose as per your needs. You can purchase this digital resource on Teachers Pay Teachers

Solving Executive Function Challenges

 

                                     

Solving Executive Function Challenges - Simple ways to get kids with Autism Unstuck and on Target book is written by Lauren Kenworthy and Laura Anthony, who have a combined experience of nearly four decades helping kids on the Autism spectrum overcome their challenges, especially, executive function challenges. This is one book I have been waiting to read for a while and I have to say, it not only lives up to my expectations but exceeds them by a mile! 

This book focuses on three specific and very essential aspects for our children. First one is learning to become a more flexible, independent and successful problem solver. Second one is developing tools to self-regulate and self-advocate in a more effective way and the third one is learning to use a framework for solving difficult situations. 

The first chapter introduces us to Executive Function as a set of brain-based abilities that help people control their behaviour and includes several aspects such as Initiation, Inhibition, Flexibility, Working memory, Organization, Planning and Self-monitoring. The second chapter introduces us to the - Unstuck and On Target program that helps children learn :

1. Flexibility or how to handle unexpected events or unexpected demands more easily

2. Goal setting or how to see the 'big picture', make long term goals and avoid distractions and

3. making and checking plans or how to organize the steps necessary to accomplish a goal or task.

The authors emphasize the use of four teaching methods to accomplish these goals - Memorize and repeatedly use scripts and key words ( an excellent collection of key words is provided for a myriad of everyday situations) ; Teach by doing; Make it fun and use visual supports.  These topics are explained in great detail in separate chapters.

The sixth chapter - Troubleshooting, covers solutions for eight common problems commonly faced by parents and teachers and offers some amazing solutions. Some of them are keeping it positive by keeping the praise to command/reprimand ratio 4:1, four times praise for every command/reprimand. I think we could all use a dose of positive thinking in our lives. Parents, take a deep breath and think of all the good work you have accomplished so far! Others problems covered are avoiding overload, breaking it down to simpler steps, taking care of ourselves, differentiating between what a child can't do vs won't do and having coping strategies ready; among others.

The appendix has some really good examples of Mission possible worksheets that help you to teach your young one to set a goal, have alternate plans A,B,C,D; Checking out which plan was used and whether it helped him/her accomplish the goal and how it went.

I hope you found this book review helpful, please use the contact form on the blog to reach out. You can purchase this book on Amazon India

Social Skills Video - Think It Or Say It

 

                           

Think it or say it is a social skills video lesson from the library of Everyday Speech. The social filter which prevents us from speaking out whatever is in our mind and makes us pause and choose a more socially appropriate response is a very essential skill that shapes our social life. Unfortunately, many kids on the spectrum find it difficult to master this skill. Teaching our visual learners through video lessons is an easier way to reinforce the concept.

In this video, three girls are seated at a table. One girl is given a gift by another. In one scenario, she says that she hates it. In another she thanks her, even though she doesn't like it. Both scenarios are played out in the video and the thoughts of all the girls are also presented, provided valuable feedback about how response affects others. You can watch the video with your kiddo and use it to discuss the important lesson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=NLm2BuW73m4