How to teach asd child with no understanding of emotion

[Firsttimeasdmom]

Any tips on how to teach emotions to a 5 yr old asd child?
We are labelling his feelings when hes happy/sad. Exagerating these emotions. And getting him to understand what the words mean.

Any tips?

It’s exactly that. When he’s happy you say he’s happy and why. Tell him when you’re happy and why, how it feels in your body.

Start with the easier ones - happy, sad, angry etc. and then move on to the more tricky ones. Role play with small world toys if he’s into that.

There are lots of picture books you can get on the subject. The Colour Monster and In My Heart are nice for younger children.

When he’s a bit older you can try some more complex ones, maybe Molly Potter. I also just bought a mood flip book from Amazon which has the emotion on one side and then examples of things they can do when they feel that way.

I think the important thing is to let him know that all emotions are ok, and that they pass. The emotion is ok but certain behaviours are not ok. It’s important to distinguish the two. Also, it’s likely to take a long time, you just have to keep plugging away.

Usborne’s ‘All about feelings’ is good too.

Ask the school if they offer emotional literacy support.

Zones of Regulation can help children manage, communicate and regulate their emotions.

Remember on average a child with ASD can emotionally appear two thirds of their chronological age.

We have been doing the same with our 4 year old, however she finds people crying really funny! she has speech delay from years of glue ear and reoccuring chronic ear infections - also suspect asd. she doesnt understand emotion or maybe she just doesnt react appropriately!!

We were doing thus and DS, then 4, got stuck on why people do different emotions and thought the angry and sad ones were funny etc as he didn't have that basic level of emotional understanding there. Zones of regulation has been great for him, he's 6 now, and starting to understand emotional, behaviour and consequence more, but we have to be careful not to hype up the consequences as then he gets obsessed with pushing boundaries to see what happens! So if he hits, he said ooh what happens, and at his old school they would swap the ta to try to help him understand consequences. It just made him wonder what happened when they ran out of teachers!! With new system, if he hits, they talk about which zone he is in and which activity he will choose to calm down. Always the same, always consistent, deescataling the behaviour.

Interesting. Thanns for your recommendations. We will try them. It seems they need visial aids not just our expressions. Will keep trying