Guest Post

This post is courtesy of Christie Pollom. Thanks Christie for sharing your ideas!     

I use the emotions wall at the beginning of therapy. I ask the students, "Mary, how are you feeling today?". The student can choose an emotion from the faces or come up with one of their own. They respond with "I feel _______ today because ___________." It is great carryover for articulation, pragmatics, language syntax, etc. As they become more comfortable they are encouraged to ask their peers in group. This has been a successful and practical activity. It started as an activity for a social skills group but has carried over into almost all of my sessions!  It literally takes minutes and then they are ready to do "therapy" work.
The other image is a life size emotion thermometer. Purple being "Happy As A Sunny Day"....Red being "Angry Like A Tornado". The student is encourage to identify their emotion on the thermometer. If you have a student with a specific interest (bugs, animals,etc.) it is easy to modify your visuals to match.  I don't use this as often but it is great for those unique emotional situations especially for my behavioral needs students or students with ASD.

Hope this is helpful to you!

Remember to send your ideas and you could see your therapy ideas featured on Speech Lady Liz!

3 comments:

  1. I love this!!! What do you do with the mailbox???

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  2. Ooh, what a great idea. I think I might make one of these bookmark-sized for any kids who I notice struggling, or who might need to take a moment at the beginning of the day to show me where they are. (That could be EVERY student!) Thanks for the idea!

    Jenny
    Luckeyfrog's Lilypad

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  3. Can you tell me what each statements says on the ruler?

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