 Author: Amy V. Jaffe and Luci Gardner
Publishing Info: 2006
Reviewed by Yu-Chi Chou, University of Kansas & Maureen Bennie
Director, Autism Awareness Centre Inc.
In My Book Full of Feelings, Luci Gardner, the mother of a child
with Asperger Syndrome, and Amy V. Jaffe, a clinical social worker,
present an effective and easy-to-use tool for teaching children with
Asperger Syndrome (AS) and other autism spectrum disorders (ASD) how to
understand and react to their emotions. Children with ASD often express
their emotions like an on/off switch. Either they don't express their
feelings or they overreact to situations with emotional intensity. The
goal of this book is to help the child modulate their feelings and to
teach how graduations of expression will work in different situations.
They need the tools to learn the emotional clues, recognize their
inappropriate responses and master more realistic responses.
The book consists of six color coded sections corresponding to six
basic and common emotions: happy, sad, angry, calm, worried and
frustrated. Each emotion has a two-page spread with emotional triggers
listed on the left-hand page and corresponding responses on the
right-hand page. The consistent format combined with effective use of
color and graphics makes it easier for adults to use and for children
to understand. The dry-erase marker format allows users to change or
update materials corresponding to each child's needs.
The book is geared to the difficulties in understanding emotions and
expressing feelings common among children with AS and ASD. First,
graduated color cues are used to represent the graduation of emotional
expression and are illustrated in a pyramid, the little emotion being
at the top of the pyramid. Second, simple cartoon face images help
recognize the various emotions. Third, thinking processes are laid out
to prompt children with solutions when coping with different emotions.
Fourth, interactive examples and appropriate responses are presented in
a clear and logical manner, and blank spaces make it easy to
individualize the various emotions, for example, by replacing
hypothetical situations by events and experiences from the child's own
life.
Another unique feature of this simple-to-use book is a set of
home-school collaborative worksheets for sharing information between
teachers and parents to ensure consistency and generalization.
In My Book Full of Feelings, the authors simplify otherwise
complex emotions and develop concrete techniques to assist children
with AS and ASD in realizing their emotional triggers, recognizing the
intensity levels, and responding appropriately. The child works
interactively with the adult to develop an emotional toolkit. As a
result, these children are equipped to navigate emotional situations
more independently. A program like this one is an essential component
to any elementary age social skills program.
Visit our Bookstore to purchase My
Book Full of Feelings: How to Control and React to the SIZE of Your
Emotions - An Interactive Workbook for Parents, Professionals &
Children.
|
