Coping Skills in School

     I find that many students need coping skills to handle their emotions.  When students are upset, it is very difficult to reason with them.  I have had good success with teaching students coping skills to help change their emotional state.  The biggest hurdle for these students is to actually put into practice the skills we have practiced when they are calm.  Visual cues can be very helpful for these students.  I made up this visual support.

     I plan on making this a flip book with the "When I feel" page the front cover, and "Now I feel" at the end.  Cut each page in half and attach them together.

I'll let you know how it works.

Click on the picture for downloadable file

The magic of UNO cards

I've been having a hard time lately with some of the older kids I see.  They don't see the point or the importance of what we are working on.  I have been very frustrated, and our sessions have been less than productive.  In desperation, I turned to Pinterest, and came across some UNO activities.

I figured - what could it hurt?  We aren't getting anything done anyway!  Well, it was no less than MAGICAL!!!

My most difficult student didn't want to come see me, but I asked him to give me just 10 min.  We played the game, and he was happy about it.  I started to pick up the cards, and he grabbed the UNO cards and starting dealing out the cards.  We ended working for 30 minutes with smiles all around.

Below is the activity I did today.

Click on the picture for activity details.

After the session, my mind was buzzing.  Although the student did well, and shared, he didn't really listen to my comments.  So I came up with this idea.  This student needs to work on writing, so I made a handout so that he has to write down the other participant's comments.  

Click on the picture for activity details.

There is just something about UNO that everyone loves.  Here is another great idea showing how to use UNO cards in a session.  

Click on the picture for activity details.

Thank you Pinterest for such great ideas and breaking my therapy block with my older students.  I look forward to coming up with some more ideas.  I'll let you know how it goes.