Blogs Students that struggle to self-regulate need tools to help them do so. Because of their heightened emotions during times of upset, the use of visual supports (instead of verbal redirection) might be helpful. Take a look at two self regulation strategies for students in our video blog below.
Video Transcript
Hi, my name’s Keely from Learners Edge.
And I’m here to talk to you today about some ways to use visuals to help students self-regulate their emotions. Do you have a student who has a hard time self-regulating or maybe is not sure what to do when they’re angry or upset?
One way that we can help them is by giving them visuals to calm themselves. It also decreases the amount of verbal interaction, which sometimes makes things worse for students with disabilities.
So we have two options. The first is a bookmark so the student can actually hold this in their hand. And this one just says, when I feel angry, I will– and then it gives the prompts of sit in my chair, fold my hands, take a deep breath, and count to 10.
These can be individualized based on the needs of the students, because not every strategy works for every student. So that’s one option. The other option is the lanyard that a teacher can wear. And it has the visuals right there for the student.
It’s also in close proximity to the teacher as wear it around their neck. And so instead of always having to verbalize please sit in your chair, please sit in your chair, the paraprofessional or the teacher can just really point and cue the student using the visual.
