Therapeutic Visual Supports for Children and Teens

Dear Families,

Here are a few of my favorite visual supports to help your children or teens share how they are feeling when they are angry, upset or frustrated.  I have included supports for young children using an analogy of a traffic light.  My support called the Traffic Light of Emotions allows young learners (ages 4-7 yrs) to explore how they are feeling by having this quick and short story to refer to.  Parents can pre-teach how to use this support when their child is in a good place behaviorally speaking.  The story can be introduced when a child shows they can attend to what is being said. This allows for the “art of redirection” to be an effective behavior change strategy for de-escalation. Additional supports for young children (ages 5-8) are a calm body rating scale, flexibility rating scale, and a thermometer game that can be easily created by parents to foster identifying emotions, align a feeling to a color, being able to self-assess and models language to express feelings or emotions. An additional support I have created, the 5 Point Voice Scale, shows young children (ages 4-8) that there are a variety of voices they can use when talking to adults or peers.  This may help to redirect a child’s angry words and tone by prompting them to change their voice to be best heard and understood. For adolescents and teens, I have developed rating scales with descriptors to help them rate their anxiety state or angry thoughts, moods and emotions and practice self-regulation or coping skills to de-escalate following a plan.  The chart can be individualized with consensus between a parent or counselor and teen. Please use any of the supports I am sharing to help your child identify their feelings by giving them the language to do so and redirecting their behavior through the use of visual supports and teaching tools.

Let me know how I can help through email or if you have any questions.