Tahirih Bushey M.A.C.C.C.
Speech & Language Pathologist

 

 

 

Drawing Faces

Draw a circle and say circle.  Add two eyes and say eye, eye as you draw. Draw a nose and say nose. Then draw a smile and say happy mouth. Grin like crazy and try to feel genuinely happy as you do it.

Do the same routine for each of the emotions. Draw a jagged mouth for mad, tears on the face for sad, and round circle eyes and mouth for scared. Draw a straight line for the mouth and use a very neutral calm voice when you say ok mouth. Your ability to act out these emotions convincingly is very important to the success of this game.

If your child does not like the sad or scared or mad face, and some don't, quickly say bye-bye sad face and scribble it out.

After your child has learned the routine, wait expectantly for your child to tell you what kind of face/mouth to draw before adding the mouth.

Label feelings and share them explicitly

When your child is sad, draw a sad face or pull out a picture of a sad face. Say, You are sad, you are sooo sad.Look, tears. Likewise, label times when your child is mad, scared, happy, and ok.

In the Silly Six Pins Game, we are acting out the emotions that we see on the bowling pins. Many children like the Silly Face or the Scared Face best but some children want the Scared Face removed before playing the game.

GO AWAY! Game

I once had a little boy who I will call Marco.  He tended to bite, hit and scream when other people came too close or touched his things.

In truth, I have had several Marcos.  But I have one in mind right now that I remember teaching the words GO AWAY!

These words worked like magic.  When said in a loud voice, they seemed to express Marco's emotions.  And they warned others away.

I now often teach these words using talking buttons at first. Children learn these words so quickly this way.

For children who talk, I only use the buttons a few times to teach the words.  Then, I often change the message to COME BACK!  When the child yells GO AWAY, he or she will soon realize the need to bring the person back again in order to yell GO AWAY! once again.

Build a Giraffe Video Model

In this Build a Giraffe Game, you will find that the clip can be used as a video model teaching how to deal with an accident without getting overly upset.  When the Giraffe breaks apart, I model how to express frustration and then try again working very carefully.

Reading Books to Share Emotions

In this clip, you will see how emotion sharing can be modeled for a child while reading a book. 

Over time, most children come to love this particular book reading game.  However, this games take time to establish.

By showing your child this video model before asking him or her to participate, you will shorten the time it takes.

Pretending Emotions

 

 

more ideas for sharing emotions