Teaching Students w/ASD 2.4: Social-Emotional Learning for Students with ASD

While I don’t think there is a specific curriculum being shared through the school or promoted by my district, in my class we do spend a significant amount of time working through some of Zones of Regulations, I’ve also used some Blingja and tried some MindUP strategies.  

Image courtesy of Autism Awareness Center

I really like Zones of Regulations and find it to be quite inclusive. It can be used to teach about feelings, what they look like, and strategies for dealing with them. I find it a concrete way to teach SEL. There are plenty of opportunities to teach Zones of Regulation through modeling, role play, and social stories. Pictures from Boardmaker can be used to help students create plans for themselves to self-regulate. Have a look at page 5 of the following resource as an example of  Boardmaker for calm down strategies, which you could use along with Zones: https://bctf.ca/diversity/bc-projects/boardmaker.pdf 

Image retrieved from Pillars of Peace

I’ve used breathing strategies from Mind UP, but with some adaptations, to use after recess and have found them to be most helpful. The chime is not a comforting sound to one of my students, so we stopped using it. We use a number of breathing exercises such as the candle breath, figure-eight breath, and square breath. I use a few different scripts, and my students seem to really enjoy them.

Image courtesy of Blingja Concepts Facebook

I found some of the ideas in the Blingja curriculum, which I learned about through a Pro-D opportunity to be helpful, such as creating a little sensory box for my class’s “Calm Down Corner” and imposing a time restriction on the Calm Down Corner of 5 minutes. In the Calm Down Corner, I have sensory integration tools mostly purchased from Odin Books. I tend to choose tools that are quiet and mildly entertaining just enough for a child to take their mind off what's bothering them but not exciting enough to want to forgo the learning activity. I also found that a visual to follow, when leading breathing exercises, was helpful to some students and can be particularly helpful for students with ASD.

I found that by mid-year students took breaks when they needed and joined the class when they were ready to learn. If students are not in the “green zone” they aren’t able to learn, so it’s best to teach them how to deal with their mental and physical well-being so that they are ready to learn.

I think SEL really connects to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs; When student’s needs are met they are more confident and motivated to learn. (McLeod, 2020)  Using SEL to teach self-regulation can help students identify their needs and strategies to meet them. This is helpful for everyone because we all have needs, and meeting them may look different for each person -a possibility for a teachable moment about stimming. 

I am still learning about SEL and will continue to add to my repertoire when I complete the SEL course through Queen's.

Resources worth looking into:

https://popey.ca/ -A quick search for "SEL" in POPEY's search bar will yield plenty of results for picture books, handouts, presentations, and research linking SEL and core competencies to daily teaching practice.

https://readingpowergear.wordpress.com/ -Adrienne Gear's blog has a wonderful list of book recommendations and discussion questions that have SEL links.

Infusing SEL into Our Classrooms and Schools by Miriam Miller  -A presentation on SEL in schools and classrooms

UBC SEL Resources -A compilation of resources centered around SEL 

References:

Allen, D., Bouchard, R., Fortier, P., Lamb, B., & Watt, R. (2004). The boardmaker project [Scholarly project]. In The Package. Retrieved from https://bctf.ca/diversity/bc-projects/boardmaker.pdf

McLeod, S. A. (2020, March 20). Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html