Emotional Regulation

Students with ASD and Asperger's' Disorders can have difficulty controlling their emotions and as a result can become dysregulated.

In order to learn a student must be well regulated. Dysregulation has many presentations depending on student. The triggers of dysregulation can also be varied from student to student and day to day. Dysregulation may be result of an initial protest/rejection of an expectation, pain, confusion, unmet sensory needs or high levels of excitement which has increased arousal.

But many signs of dysregulation may actually present as "calming" mechanism as the students attempts to regulate. They may include:

- self rocking

- seeking deep pressure

- repeating familiar phrases

Innervation to self regulation and emotional wellbeing should work towards equipping students with strategies and resources to remain regulated in socially appropriate and effective way and allowing calm themselves when upset.

In my class we talk about emotion daily, especially during Morning Meeting lesson when we setting up for a day and outlining visual schedule.

Teachers are often referring to feeling happy, sad, angry, .... but forgetting to include "OK" feeling in charts and emotion boards. It's ok to feel just "ok". In my class we talk, model and encourage "ok" feeling. This is an example of a emotion board I use to encourage my students to talk about their feelings and strategies they can use to regulate themselves.

How do you help your students to maintain their emotional regulation?

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Laurent, A. C., Rubin, E. (2004). Challenges in emotional regulation in Asperger's Syndrome and high functioning autism. Topics in Language Disorders, 24, 286-297