Expressing emotions
Strategies and advice to help learners understand and express emotions.
- Identify and support interoception differences—the ability to feel and read the body’s internal signals.
- Explicitly teach emotional vocabulary through small group/1:1 direct teaching.
- Provide visual supports and systems to enable understanding and self-advocacy, e.g., The Incredible 5 Point Scale, Scenario Cards, Social Stories, Comic Strip Conversations, Calming Strategies, regulation plans.
- Model emotional regulation techniques through narration of your own needs and support strategies, e.g., "My heart is beating quickly, I think I am anxious. I am going to take some deep breaths."
- Use "I wonder" statements to link body signals to emotions, e.g., "I can see you are breathing really quickly. I wonder if you are getting cross and need to have a movement break."