Take Home Activities

1. Help Child Identify Emotions with more ease

Look through a magazine and cut out pictures of faces and label emotions appropriately.

Hang the handout in an area that can be viewed and referenced easily.

Have the child practice identifying emotions. The child can identify them on family members, tv shows, or in the community. Give the child encouragement by repeating emotion when he/she is successful. You may have to begin with over emphasizing emotions initially such as laughing loud or frowning intensely. Try to have the child identify emotions at least 1x a day. This will be easy to incorporate into the daily routine.

2. Role Playing Practice

Have the child practice 1 role-playing activity 1x a day. Try to make this a fun activity. It can even be incorporated into a game.

Some examples are as follows.

· Ask a friend to play a game.
· Ask someone for help to find a lost object (ball, quarter, pencil)
· Tell a person you like his/her hair, clothes, hat, backpack, etc.
· Tell a person that he/she hurt your feelings
· Thank a friend for playing with you.
· Greet a person in the morning
· Ask a teacher for help on a question

Encourage the child to make eye contact. Gentle reminders are nice but should not be forced. Instead, delay response to the child so eye contact is made before continuing conversation. Explain the purpose of eye contact is the listener knows that you are talking to him and it tells the listener you are interested in him.


I have found that simple home programs are completed more consistently. If I give the family too much to do the child and parents can become overwhelmed and don’t engage as willingly in the activities. According to the Ginsburg article over scheduling may lead to emotionally unbalanced children. I try to keep in mind of all of the demands the children have including school, therapy, counseling, play groups, etc. If I have a family that has challenges staying organized I make a list of the weekdays as follows.

Home Program (Role Playing or Emotion Game) Schedule
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Beside each day I place a box and have the child check off each day the home program is completed. I ask them to aim for 5 checks in a week. If the checklist comes back successfully completed a small reward is given, such as a sticker, cookie, lollipop, or choice of a new activity.