For many children, understanding and expressing emotions can be a challenge. They may struggle with recognizing their own feelings, reading emotions in others, or knowing how to respond appropriately in different situations. The good news is that emotional awareness is a skill that can be taught, modeled, and practiced with the right strategies.

In this conversation, we discuss the best ways to teach emotions to kids. We dive into how to assess a learner’s baseline and where to start teaching. We also discuss how to reduce rigidity in our teaching, teaching across operants, and generalization techniques.

What’s Inside:

• How to best teach emotions to children
• How to assess a learner’s baseline and where to start teaching
• Helpful generalization techniques

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Leanne Page is a mom, a BCBA, and the founder of Parenting with ABA. When she became a mother, Leanne realized how her training and education in behavior analysis gave her a leg up on discipline issues. She’s worked as a special education teacher in self-contained to inclusive settings, from elementary to high school. She also managed a center providing ABA services to children in 1:1 and small group settings.

Through Parenting with ABA, Leanne leverages her extensive experience in school and teacher training, therapist training, parent training, and providing direct services to children and families in a center-based or in-home therapy setting. Today, she spends a lot of time writing and creating trainings to help disseminate ABA and make it easy for all parents to digest and apply in their own lives. Leanne’s goal is to save parents’ sanity every day!

Here, Leanne shares her strategies for working with parents and her thoughts on emotional regulation. We discuss the risks of not acknowledging parents in our work as BCBAs, common mistakes we make, and tips for supporting parents better. Leanne also shares the benefits of incorporating mindfulness techniques with parents, the importance of self-compassion, and advice for newly minted BCBAs.

What’s Inside:

• How Leanne works with parents through Parenting with ABA
• BCBA tips to better support parents
• Advice for newly minted BCBAs

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Parenting with ABA 

Self-regulation is a challenge for many of our learners. Having a personalized regulation toolbox makes a huge difference in a child's ability to navigate their emotions and daily challenges. This toolbox is made up of a set of calming strategies tailored to each person’s unique needs. Here, we discuss how we can help learners develop the skill of self-regulation and a set of tools that works for them.

We start by talking through the importance of having an emotional regulation toolbox and how to help learners identify their triggers. We discuss how to look at functions of behavior and introduce replacement skills. We also discuss what to avoid when building a toolbox, how to foster independence in our learners, and how to tailor a toolbox to individual needs.

What’s Inside:

• How an emotional regulation toolbox helps learners navigate life’s challenges
• How to identify functions of behavior and introduce replacement skills
• How to tailor emotional regulation toolboxes to individual needs
  
  

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Calming Activities List

Emotional regulation is a foundational skill that influences how we manage stress, handle challenges, and connect with others. Here, we define emotional regulation and dive into all the reasons why it’s so important for our development and well-being. We also discuss how we, as BCBAs and practitioners, can help our learners strengthen this essential skill.

The term emotional regulation refers to the ability to recognize and manage one’s emotions in a way that supports appropriate behavior and well-being. We talk about the importance of uncovering the function of behavior and how to choose reinforcement strategies. We also share why we typically start with teaching co-regulation, how to use modeling and visuals, and the importance of consistency and practice.

What’s Inside:

• Why emotional regulation is necessary for our development and well-being
• How to teach emotional regulation skills to our learners
• How to choose the right teaching strategies 

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CEU: Teaching Emotional Regulation Strategies to Reduce Anxiety

Amanda Wilson is a school psychologist, BCBA, and the founder of Navigating Behavior Change. She has over 18 years of experience within the public school setting, and as a military wife, she has had the opportunity to work in various regions across the United States. She also has significant experience in conducting assessments, developing comprehensive, individualized behavior intervention plans, and ensuring compliance with special education law.

Amanda is well versed in assisting school teams in implementing positive behavior intervention frameworks, regularly provides professional development, training, and support in implementing classroom management strategies, and is a leader both within her educational setting and her role as an educational consultant.

Here, we dive into Amanda’s work through Navigating Behavior Change and how she empowers and teaches educators across the country. We discuss how to use preventative strategies with students and how to bridge the gap between teachers and BCBAs. Amanda shares some quick classroom wins for teachers to implement and tips for BCBAs to build positive relationships with educators. 

What’s Inside:

• How Amanda empowers educators through Navigating Behavior Change
• Quick classroom wins for teachers
• Tips for BCBAs who work with educators

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Navigating Behavior Change Website

When a learner has multiple diagnoses, it has a significant influence on treatment approaches, behavioral changes, and intervention planning. Therefore, it’s essential to determine whether a skill is a “can’t do” or a “won’t do” when we’re developing our treatment strategies. Here, we discuss the impact more than one diagnosis has on treatment and the steps we can take to provide our learners with the best support possible.

When someone can’t do something, it’s usually due to them not having the skills to do it. In these cases, no amount of reinforcement will be motivating. However, through proper assessment, we can figure out whether a learner isn’t capable of a task or if they are but won’t do it. We discuss the telltale signs that signal a “can’t do” or a “won’t do,” how to break skills down into smaller steps, how to increase motivation, and how to create a trusting environment for our learners.

What’s Inside:

• How multiple diagnoses impact treatment strategies
• How to tell the difference between a “can’t do” vs a “won’t do”
• How to increase engagement and motivation

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Autism rarely occurs in isolation, and many individuals face additional health challenges. Understanding these challenges can help us provide more compassion and effective support. Here, we discuss the common comorbidities we may encounter with our learners. We also dive into the behavioral implications of those comorbidities as well as the medical challenges that may arise.

Comorbidities are conditions that happen alongside autism and may even be undiagnosed. They can have a major impact on a learner’s physical and mental health and overall quality of life. We get into some of the more technical aspects of the common comorbidities, like anxiety and ADHD, and what you should incorporate in your teaching. We also cover the behavioral impacts of various health symptoms, how to approach sensory processing disorders and learning disabilities, and the importance of individualizing our strategies.

What’s Inside:

• Behavioral implications of comorbidities
• How to recognize and manage accompanying physical and mental symptoms
• The importance of individualizing our teaching strategies

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Free Antecedent Log

Comorbidities or multiple diagnoses like anxiety and ADHD are common in our learners. These overlapping challenges on top of ASD can make day-to-day life overwhelming for both the children and the adults supporting them. Kids with ADHD may be inattentive and hyperactive. Anxiety may manifest as intense worrying, avoidance behaviors, and even physical symptoms. Here, we share some actionable strategies we can use to support learners with anxiety and ADHD.

We cover the importance of looking at our learners’ comorbidities through a behavioral lens and assessing the function of the presenting skills or behaviors. We also discuss the benefits of creating a predictable environment and scheduling, emotional regulation and mindfulness activities, and how to assess and develop executive functioning skills.

If you’d like to explore this topic deeper, we’re hosting a live CEU titled There is No Such Thing as a Bad Kid, a Behavioral Approach to Anxiety on March 20th at 12pm EST. For more information and to sign up, click the link below!

What’s Inside:

• Actionable strategies to support kids with anxiety and ADHD
• How to look at comorbidities through a behavioral lens
• Information on our upcoming live CEU

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Join our upcoming CEU: There is No Such Thing as a Bad Kid, a Behavioral Approach to Anxiety

Many of our learners struggle with being unable to communicate their basic wants and needs. In some cases, this can cause challenging behavior. Functional communication training, or FCT, is an effective way to build those important communication skills in our learners. Here, we discuss how to incorporate FCT within skills-based treatment.

We touch on why behavior doesn’t just serve a single function and how to introduce healthy communication as a replacement skill. We discuss Dr. Gregory Hanley’s approach to FCT and the importance of starting with a practical functional assessment. We also share some practical examples, the value of shaping, and why we should prioritize building healthy relationships with our learners.

What’s Inside:

• How to incorporate FCT into skills-based treatment
• How to introduce communication as a replacement skill
• The importance of starting with a functional assessment
  
  

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Cooperation Over Compliance Series

When our learners lose a game or have to share a toy, they can become extremely frustrated. To help them adapt to new routines and expectations, we teach them social flexibility. When we’re socially flexible, we can adjust our behavior and communication based on the situation and people involved. Social flexibility greatly improves our learners’ social interactions, helps them manage their emotions, and allows them to deal with daily challenges.

Here, we discuss how to successfully teach social flexibility to our learners. We discuss the benefits of using an ACT-based approach as well as teaching methods for students without language skills. We also share some real-world examples of teaching social flexibility, how to utilize priming, using reinforcement without triggering challenging behavior, and more.

What’s Inside:

• How to teach social flexibility 
• The benefits of using an ACT-based approach
• How to use reinforcement without triggering challenging behavior

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ACT Committed Actions Planner