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L.S.

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We go through moments in life that make us worried, stressed and very anxious...so anxious that our thought patterns are distorted or we become immobile and don't want to take action.

Some people self-medicate with alcohol or drugs, or even overeat unhealthy food which may lead to other addictive behaviors. Even though these methods may work temporarily, they are only numbing feelings and not relieving the underlying problems. What's needed is a regular, daily health routine for the long term.

There are so many facets of anxiety and so much that can help relieve symptoms such as talk therapy, art, working out, good nutrition and, of course, yoga.

Why Yoga Can Help

Often, we feel instilled with fear and reluctance, and find that there is no way out of our stressful situations. A regular yoga practice incorporating the right poses can help to alleviate some of this anxiety.

Yoga involves deep breathing, focusing on postures and stilling the mind. It's a practice tailor made specifically for you. It's not listening to outside noise or competing with anyone else. The aim of your anxiety alleviating practice is to choose movements that calm you, keep you in the moment and not feeling rushed and are not extremely challenging to you.

The following movements are helpful to ease anxiety and are possible for nearly everyone to attempt and practice. Make sure you have a comfortable mat and clothing, enough space, no distraction, peaceful music and essential oil (if you like) and adequate time (at least 30 uninterrupted minutes). Without the right place and set up, your yoga practice will not bring you the comfort you require. Remember to always take full, long deep breaths as you practice.

6 Yoga Poses That Help Alleviate Anxiety

Here are six yoga poses that you can practice daily to slow your racing mind. Try to spend at least 3-5 minutes in each posture to gain the maximum benefit. Yoga alone is not a cure-all for anxiety, but enjoying these movements are an important part of self-care and nurturing for your body and mind.

1. Legs Up the Wall

Put your mat against a wall where you can stretch your legs.

Place your buttocks as close as possible to the wall. It is easier if you curl to your side first, pressing your hip to the wallm and then turn when you can stretch your legs straight against the wall.

Relax your arms by your side with your palms facing up.

Close your eyes or use an eye pad (scented is great). Clear your mind by focusing on your breath.

Take deep breaths here: 5 counts to inhale, 5 counts to exhale. Allow yourself to release tension here as you hold this pose for as long as you like. Your heart rate typically slows down immediately here.

Tips: If it's hard to keep your back on the floor with your legs raised, use a bolster under hips to help elevate them. You can also put on some relaxing music or nature sounds.

Something about elevating the legs above the heart allows tension and stress to melt away.

2. Child's Pose

Make sure you have a thick enough mat (or use a blanket) that is supportive for your knees so that you can feel comfortable.

You can have your knees together or spread in a V-shape.

Reach your arms up and stretch forward as far as you can.

Soften, release, let go and close your eyes. Release your head, arms, neck, shoulders, back and, of course, your thoughts.

Allow your body to melt into the mat; try not to hold tension in your muscles. Allow yourself to melt deeper with each deep breath. Find peacefulness in this pose.

3. Seated Forward Bend

Sit upright on your mat with your legs stretched in front of you. Move your seat from side to side to adjust to make your sitting bones connect to the mat.

Reach your arms up with a long spine and stretch your heart forward to your toes.

Go as far as is possible for your body where you can feel a stretch but no pain.

If you keep a flat back, you will target the stretch in your hamstrings. If your back is rounded, the stretch will target more of your back. Both are effective and useful. Choose whichever suites you better in this moment.

You can have your toes pointed or flexed. Try both to see what is the best stretch for you. After a few minutes, slowly roll up.

This pose can relieve anxiety, mild depression and helps to relieve headaches.

4. Cat/Cow Pose

Come onto all fours with your hands below shoulders and your knees below your hip bones, keeping your back straight in a neutral position.

Inhale, lower your belly, draw your shoulder blades together and peel open your chest, lifting your gaze to find Cow Pose. Exhale, press against your palms, round into your back body as you draw your shoulder blades apart from each other, gazing toward your navel to find Cat Pose. Continue these movements following your breath.

Feel the arching movement up and down throughout your back while inhaling and exhaling with the rhythm of the movement.

Move slowly to feel the movement of each vertebra of your spine.

This is such a relaxing and releasing combination of postures if done properly. Keep your eyes closed to focus on connecting each movement to your breath.

5. Standing Forward Bend

This is a very beneficial pose that can be used at anytime, as no mat is required. Do it at the office, while shopping, before anything that creates anxiety. It gives you energy and releases tension.

Stand with your feet either together or hip-distance apart.

Keep an elongated spine as you raise your arms overhead and then hinge from your hips as you fold forward reaching down toward your toes.

You may just let everything go and hang like a rag doll or hold opposite elbows with opposite hands.

Feel the heaviness release from your shoulders, upper back, and head (the places that we tend to keep most of our tension).

Close your eyes and take deep breaths, letting go of any thoughts, and hold for as long as you like.

6. Corpse Pose

This pose is considered to be the easiest to do physically, but the most difficult for the mind and spirit to master.

Lie down on your mat with your arms by your side, palms up, legs relaxed, with feet turning toward the sides of your mat.

You may use a pillow under your knees to support your lower back if you feel tension there.

Close your eyes, release any tension in your face.

Practice deep breathing in and out until you feel very relaxed.

Tips: The best way to determine if you are relaxed and not holding tension is to tighten or clench your entire body, hold for a moment, and then release.

Clear your mind; and if any disruptive thought enters, remind yourself that this is not the time to think about it. You will return to it later.

Hopefully, these poses will become second nature to you and you can turn to them when needed. You can practice at home or anywhere else that has physical and emotional space for you to practice yoga.

Don't forget to clear your mind by practicing deep breathing and focusing on each movement. Anxiety is not forever and can be managed on your way back to becoming calm and content.

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6 Yoga Poses That Help Alleviate Anxiety

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We go through moments in life that make us worried, stressed and very anxious...so anxious that our thought patterns are distorted or we become immobile and don't want to take action. Some people self-medicate with alcohol or drugs, or even overeat unhealthy food which may lead to other addictive behaviors.

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Practice social pragmatics and communication skills with a board game! The game includes 160 cards focused on real life social communication situations and phrases. The different cards allow kids to think before they speak, discuss what they'd do in different scenarios, decipher

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Provide different sensory activities to manage sensory breaks

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Sensory Activity Labels and Choice Cards

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Do you use sensory activities in your classroom? Do your students benefit from sensory breaks throughout the day? These labels are the perfect way to organize your sensory activity materials and help your students to make choices. Visual cues are an effective tool to assist special education (ESE) students with communication.

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While compensatory strategies are generally tailored to the needs of each individual, there are also some general strategies that may be useful to many persons with cognitive difficulties following a TBI.

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Awesome chart on the Wilbarger Brushing...

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Awesome chart on the Wilbarger Brushing Protocol! I have talked about this before, but now here is a nice visual to help you remember how to do it.Miriam, Mod.

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Sequencing activity.
The sewing sequence requires an awareness of the
front and back of the turtle leather, right and left, and up and down to navigate the beads through the leather.

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Memory Book - EH

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As many of you know, my externship this semester is with adults. Since my week one update, I've grown to really enjoy my patients.

So so so many of my patients have dementia. I've been hearing a lot about making memory & orientation books, but had difficulty finding templates, ideas, and examples online. So of course, I made my own! You can see it here. Hopefully this helps inspire some of you who work with adults.

Note: Read to the bottom of this post for links to some other websites about memory/orientation book and other AAC strategies for persons with dementia.

How To Make A Memory And/Or Orientation Book:

1) Start with your materials. I collect white cardstock, colored cardstock, some patterned scrapbook paper, thin binders, a hole punch, glue sticks, and the pictures you want to use.

2) Print the pages of my binder that you want to include (or make your own!).

3) If you decided to use the label pages, cut out the labels.

4) Make a big mess and drink some tea. (not necessary but trying to give you the whole process... ;)) And back your pictures and labels with colored cardstock to make the book extra colorful and pretty!

5) Assemble! The pictures above are two examples of orientation pages using the labels.

And the two pages above are examples of a memory book I might make for myself! I do think I need one some days...

Again, this is just how I made my book. Feel free to get creative and make it with your style! Below are some additional pictures of my product that I didn't show above:

My product includes three sections:

1) Memory Book Template: This entire section is in black and white for easy printing for each resident! Places for pictures are marked and labeled. See example pages with cursive writing above for examples!

2) Orientation Book Template: The same structure as the memory book section (all black and white) except for it is orientation based. There is a weekly and monthly schedule included as well. See example pages with print (not cursive) above for examples. Additionally, a label page is included as shown in the example pictures at the beginning of this post.

3) Safety Signs: See the product pictures in the middle of this post for one example (with the stop sign).

As of now, it is 66 pages long. BUT CATCH THIS. For the first couple months I have this product up, I will add pages that YOU need! Just purchase the pr0duct and if a page is missing, let me know and I'll update the product for you and everybody else containing that page!

As always, thanks for reading and email me at speechymusings@gmail.com if you have ANY questions!

More Resources for Memory/Orientation Books:
Creating Memory Books and Activity Kits Therapeutic Interventions with Individuals with Dementia AAC Strategies for Persons with Dementia (from ASHA)

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As many of you know, my externship this semester is with adults. Since my week one update, I've grown to really enjoy my patients. So so so many of my patients have dementia. I've been hearing a lot about making memory & orientation books, but had difficulty finding templates, ideas, and examples online.

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Anger Management Worksheet For Children - Kaitlynne Douglass

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Anger Management Worksheet For Children - Kaitlynne Douglass

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I receive A LOT of referrals for anger management every year - especially with 3rd and 4th grade boys. I really like the ideas found on this website and thought that they did a great job of explaining WHY so many children are angry, and what is lying behind their anger.

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Try some of these powerful calming sensory strategies to help kids remain focused, engaged, and content in the classroom!
This post contains affiliate links. Read more.
The back-to-school season can be filled with excitement and high hopes for a fresh new start. But it's also important to recognize how challenging this time of year can be for kids.

Shifting from summer to school brings academic demands and expectations along with a whole new schedule, which may mean different bedtimes, wake-up times, pick-up and drop-off times, and even mealtimes. Going to school also means adjusting to complex social nuances and managing all different kinds of relationships.

Kids who attend school outside the home must also adapt to a new classroom routine and culture and the expectations of a new teacher. Put this all together with some of the most intense sensory input in the world...have you ever been in a school cafeteria!?...and it's no wonder that going back to school can be stressful for many kids.

But the back-to-school season doesn't have to be all gloom and doom! There are many simple calming sensory strategies and therapy tools that can be used to help kids with self-regulation during school days , regardless of their school setting or whether they have identified sensory needs.

Calming Sensory Strategies for School

1 || A quiet space and a way for the child to signal when she needs a break.

A quiet space can be as simple as a corner with a bean bag chair and some pillows, a small tent or canopy made from a sheet, or even a desk with a partition for some privacy. A quiet space is a great way to limit auditory, visual, and other input so a child can regroup and calm herself down.

Don't forget to provide kids with a clear way of indicating when they need to use the quiet space - a sign up sheet or a laminated card they can give to the teacher to request time in the quiet space are great options.

2 || Calming Tactile Input

There are many great ways to provide calming input through the tactile system. One simple tool that is easily used as a calming sensory break during the day is a tactile bin. Fill a shoebox-sized plastic container with sand, dry rice, or dry beans and let kids run their hands through it.

Applying deep pressure to the body with hugs, a weighted blanket or weighted stuffed animal, or squishes with a pillow or beanbag chair provides full-body calming sensory input for kids who might be overwhelmed or anxious at school.

3 || Calming Oral Sensory Input

The can be another great avenue for calming and can provide calming oral sensory and proprioceptive input. Try oral sensory system self-regulation. For many children, chewingoral sensory snacks like bagels and fruit leather or even gum.

Many kids benefit from using chewy pendants, bracelets, or other items to provide this calming input. Chewigem USA has a variety of products for kids who need to chew! They have a great variety of wearable options, including their Disc Pendants and Tread Bangles.

Other great calming oral sensory activities include sucking against resistance (e.g. sucking a thick smoothie through a straw) and blowing (e.g. blowing a feather or pompom across a table).

4 || Calming Auditory Input

One of the quickest way to help kids who are overstimulated and overwhelmed is to quiet things down. Using a quiet voice to address kids and get their attention rather than raising your voice over the noise is a great start. Having a way to monitor sound in the classroom, like a noise meter, is also a great idea.

Other auditory strategies include playing white noise while students are working (e.g. rain sounds, ocean sounds, or even using a fan) to help block out typical school sounds like chairs scraping the floor and kids coming in and out of the room from the bathroom.

Quiet, calming music is another great option. These can be used either for the whole classroom or for individual students with headphones. Noise reducing headphones are also great for kids who become overstimulated by sound in loud situations (e.g. lunchroom, assemblies, gym).

5 || Calming Visual Input

Some children become overwhelmed and overstimulated by visual input. The movement, light, and other distractions in a school setting can simply be too much.

There is usually enough natural light coming through the windows during the day for kids to see and simply turning off or dimming the lights is a quick and easy way to decrease visual stimulation.

It's also important to try to limit other visual distractions in the learning environment for kids who are easily overwhelmed. This means creating a clear, clutter-free workspace by storing supplies and materials off of tables and desks and limiting decorations and other things hanging on the walls. Some children may also benefit from visual dividers or working in a study carrel.

Other calming visual activities include repetitive visual input like watching fish in a fish tank or looking at sensory bottles and calm down jars filled with liquid and other objects (water, oil, water beads, glitter). Many children also respond positively to a visual picture schedule, which lets them know what's coming next throughout the day.

6 || Calming Proprioceptive Input

A lot of kids benefit from proprioceptive input in the form of heavy work. Heavy work means moving the body against heavy resistance. This provides stimulation to the muscles and joints that can be calming and organizing.

Heavy work activities include: squishing/squeezing play dough or a stress ball, pulling against resistance bands, pushing/moving chairs or desks, climbing, holding a heavy door open, and carrying books.

Chewing also comes into play here. Chewing against resistance as described above is another great way to provide calming input to the proprioceptive system.

Many children find repetitive and rhythmic vestibular input, including rocking, swaying, or gentle swingingto be extremely calming. This kind of sensory input can be a great and easy way to help a child reset when they are overstimulated, overwhelmed, or dealing with tantrums. Adding a rocking chair or two around the room and having an exercise ball handy are simple ways to provide calming movement when kids need it.

Try one of these Row, Row, Row Your Boat activities or some gentle back and forth movement on a or on a therapy ball.

8 || Yoga, Breathing, and Meditation

Using these tools in educational settings is becoming more and more mainstream - with very good reason. Moving slowly through a yoga sequence can provide calming stimulation to the vestibular system, the proprioceptive system, and the tactile system.
Includingcalming breathing techniques for kids throughout the school day is another way to calm the entire nervous system.

9 || Fine motor and visual tasks that are familiar, quiet, and repetitive

Completing familiar, repetitive tasks can be a very calming experience for many kids. Arriving at school and completing one or two quiet, independent activities can be the perfect start to the day for kids who become overwhelmed easily.

10 || Calming Combinations

When it comes to finding calming solutions for kids, it's best to allow some time for experimentation and trial and error. And sometimes, the best solutions involve combining two or more strategies and using them together.

Here are some examples:-Dig/play in tactile bin while listening to white noise or quiet music on headphones-Sitting or lying with a weighted blanket while looking at sensory bottles-Chewing gum or a chewy snack while working on a calming, independent fine motor task

-Rhythmic rocking or swaying with calming breathing technique

We would love to hear from you! What are your favorite calming sensory and other strategies to use in educational settings? Leave a comment below or comment on our Facebook page!

Check out our DIY Calm Down Kit and these great sensory ideas to help calm kids when you're on-the-go.

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10 Calming Sensory Strategies for School - The Inspired Treehouse

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Try some of these powerful calming sensory strategies to help kids remain focused, engaged, and content in the classroom! this ... This post contains affiliate links. Read more. The back-to-school season can be filled with excitement and high hopes for a fresh new start.

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Social Skills Resources for Children (SB)

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Social skills activities are wonderful for teaching kids social skills. When kids develop social skills, they are better able to get along with others.

Social skills are the means by which people can make connections to others, exchange information and ideas, make their needs and desires known, and enter into and maintain relationships with other people (Taylor, Richards, and Brady, 2005).

Some kids are good at understanding and displaying effective social skills. They are usually popular, outgoing, and know how to engage with other people effortlessly.

Then there are those children who are shy, don't talk much, and are more reserved. They may get anxious when they interact with others, especially in unfamiliar territory.

Additionally, kids on the Autism spectrum also struggle with social skills deficits.

Social skills activities give kids an opportunity to learn and practice social skills in a non-threatening way. Since these activities are fun it's an easy buy in for kids

Why We Need Social Skills

Social skills allow us to interact and communicate with others. These skills include verbal and non-verbal communication, such as gestures, facial expression, body language, and personal appearance. People who are socially competent are able to:

Show empathy for others

Participate in group activities

Be generous

Be helpful

Communicate effectively with others

Problem solve and negotiate

A person with strong social skills knows how to behave in social situations and understand both verbal and non-verbal cues when communicating with others.

Social Skills Needed For Success

Based on two decades of classroom research and surveys from 8,000 elementary school teachers, researchers from Vanderbuilt University identified ten social skills kids need to develop in order to be successful in school: Their research findings indicate that children benefit greatly when they know how to:

1. Listen to others
2. Follow the steps /Follow directions
3. Follow the rules
4. Ignore distractions
5. Ask for help
6. Take turns when talking to others
7. Get along with others
8. Stay calm with others
9. Be responsible for their behavior
10. Do nice things for others

Benefits of Learning Social Skills

There are numerous benefits to being socially competent. According to Lynch & Simpson, "the development of social skills lays a critical foundation for later academic achievement as well as work-related skills.

Families and schools that create an environment which reinforces social competency, allow children a greater opportunity to have positive short and long-term success. When kids learn effective social skills they:

Develop a positive attitude about themselves and others

Communicate better with others

Develop more self-control and are better able to manage their behaviors and emotions

Manage conflicts more effectively

Learn to be empathetic and see other people's perspective

Related article: 100+ Social Skills Activities For Preschoolers
Signs of Social Skills Deficits In Children

Social skills deficits can become a lifelong problem for children if not addressed early on. Therefore, it is important that we identify and address deficits as soon as possible. If a child has difficulties with social skills they might:

Have trouble making and keeping friends

Inconsistently make eye contact, look down at the ground, or they may stare at others

Have difficulties taking turns during a conversation, talk over others, interrupt, or offer irrelevant

input in a conversation

Have inappropriate boundaries and don't recognize people's personal space

Not understand the consequences of their actions.

Struggle to use good manners

Ask inappropriate questions

Be rigid in their thinking and can't see other people's perspective

Have trouble understanding sarcasm and take things literally

Have difficulty reading body language and non-verbal cues

Be unable to respond to teasing, anger, failure and disappointment appropriately

Have difficulty asking for help

Lacks empathy

Come off as conceited, self-centered, and/or entitled

Have a difficult time handling conflict

Not be able to handle failure

How to Help Children Improve Social Skills

Developing social skills in children is all about teaching them to communicate effectively through verbal and non-verbal means. According to Ladd & Simpson, 2005, "teaching social skills can incorporate a number of techniques, including direct instruction, learning from peers, prevention of problem behaviors, and children's books."

Below are several resources that highlight different ways and resources you can use to help children learn how to interact with others in socially acceptable ways.

This resource is updated frequently. Sign up for our monthly newsletter, Social Emotional Tool Box, to get social skills activities delivered directly to your inbox. When you sign up you also receive VIP access to our growing library of free social and emotional learning printables and activities.

Social Skills Activities
Best Games to Teach Children Social Skills 100+ Social Skills Activities for Pre-Schoolers 50+ Self-Control Activities for Pre-Schoolers
There are so many different activities you can utilize to help children develop their social skills.

Social Skills Activities: Minimum Prep, Maximun Fun by Everyday Speech

10 Engaging and Fun Social Skills Group Activities for Kids by Encourage Play

Social Skills Activities to Help Kids Who Are Bossy by Encourage Play

55 Kindness Activities for Kids by Kid's Activities Blog

Social Skills Books

101 Books That Build Friendships, Communication, and Social Skills by Childhood 101

24 Fabulous Picture Books About Friendship by Teaching With Children's Books

Books About Inclusion and Acceptance by A Day In Our Shoes

Books That Help Children Learn About Friendships by Imagination Soup

20 Top Books For Teaching Kids Manners by The Relaxed Homeschool

30 Anti-Bullying Books for Kids by Untrained Housewife

6 Dr, Suess Books for Teaching Kids Social Skills by iGame Mom

Self Regulation Picture Books by Teaching Elementary and Beyond

Children's Books That Encourage Kindness by What We Do All Day

Social Stories For Social Skills
Social Skills Training Mini-Book Bundle Social Story-NO HITTING How to Make Friends Social Story Teaching Kids to be Responsible-Social Story and Activities Teaching Kids to be Fair-Social Story and Activities Teaching Kids To Be Caring Social Story Social Story: How to Show Respect When I Am Frustrated Social Story
Social stories are a great way to help children understand what behaviors are expected of them. Below are a variety of free and paid social stories to help teach children social skills.

Playground Social Scripts Mini Flip books-by And Next Comes L

Free Printable Comic Book Template For Making Social Story by Picklebums

21 Social Story Templates and Apps by Meraki Lane

Receiving Gifts Social Script by And Next Comes L

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Social skills activities to help kids build relationships

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Social skills activities are wonderful for teaching kids social skills. When kids develop social skills, they are better able to get along with others. Social skills are the means by which people can make connections to others, exchange information and ideas, make their needs and desires known, and enter into and maintain relationships with other people (Taylor, Richards, and Brady, 2005).

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This game engages children in fun reflection and role-playing activities that facilitate the development of social skills in a variety of environments.

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fun way for kids to learn about when two vowel sounds join in one syllable

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FREE Dipthong Puzzles are a fun way for kids to learn about when two vowel sounds join in one syllable. Great activity for kindergarten, first grade, and 2nd gr

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Teach client a variety of relaxation techniques to increase emotional regulation (LN). 

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Teach client a variety of relaxation techniques to increase emotional regulation (LN). 

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Deep breathing exercises can be a useful and safe way for the client to calm down before or even after an outburst. Deep breathing exercises are beneficial and transferable to numerous environments and tasks.

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"Mind In A Jar": Teaching Mindfulness to Children

If you have some clear jars, some water, and some glitter, you can introduce your children to the practice of mindfulness! Mindfulness is a big word and can be a bit abstract for children to grasp, but by making a mind jar - kind of like a snow globe - we can teach children how their minds work. They can learn that they can calm the swirl of emotions and thoughts in their heads by concentrating on their breath. Just like the glitter settles in the jar, their emotions can settle in their minds. A mind jar can be a great tool for kids to use when they need to calm down and take a break. And... they can be helpful for us grownups, too!
PIN IT FOR LATER:
Sarah Rudell Beach is a teacher, wife, and mother to two little ones. She is the creator of Left Brain Buddha, where she explores ideas and practices for mindfulness, and shares the challenges and riches in her journey to live and parent mindfully in a left-brain, analytical life. Her writing has been featured on Tiny Buddha, The Power of Moms, Mamapedia, and BlogHer. In her free time, she enjoys reading, yoga, and hanging out with her little Buddhas.

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"Mind In A Jar": Teaching Mindfulness to Children

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"Mind In A Jar": Teaching Mindfulness to Children If you have some clear jars, some water, and some glitter, you can introduce your children to the practice of mindfulness! Mindfulness is a big word and can be a bit abstract for children to grasp, but by making a mind jar - kind of like a snow globe - we can teach children how their minds work.

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Mindfulness Activity Pack - Spring Themed

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Communication skills - Understanding why mental filters are important

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Intervention for how to build an apology by thinking about reasons the apology needs to be made and what one can do next time to avoid the situation.

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These social skills activities will help your elementary students learn to make an apology. Kids will learn to apologize using 4 steps, and get to practice with various scenario cards. These activities are perfect for your small group and classroom school counseling lessons!

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Positive Self-Affirmations and Mindfulness 

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Positive Self-Affirmations and Mindfulness 

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-TW

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Positive self-affirmations and mindfulness activity in today's DBT skills group.

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Social skills training (SST) is a type of behavioral therapy used to improve social skills in people with mental disorders or developmental disabilities. SST may be used by teachers, therapists, or other professionals to help those with anxiety disorders, mood disorders, personality disorders, and other diagnoses.

It is delivered either individually or in a group format, usually once or twice a week, and is often used as one component of a combined treatment program.

Social Anxiety Disorder

Social anxiety can have an impact on social skills in a variety of ways. People with social anxiety disorder (SAD) are less likely to engage in social interactions, giving them less opportunity to build skills and gain confidence.﻿﻿

SAD can also have a direct impact on social behavior regardless of skill level. For example, you may know that eye contact is important but feel unable to maintain it during a conversation because of fear.

SST has been shown to be effective in improving social skills for those with SAD regardless of the social issue. If there is a skills deficit, you can learn how to better manage social interactions.﻿﻿

If social anxiety is masking your social ability, practice and exposure during SST can help improve your confidence and self-esteem and reduce your anxiety about social situations. For those with social anxiety disorder, SST is often used in combination with other treatments such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) or medication.

Training Techniques

SST generally begins with an assessment of your specific skill deficits and impairments. Your therapist may ask you which social interactions you find the most challenging or which skills you feel could be improved. The goal of this process is to identify the best targets for social skills training for your particular situation.

Once specific target areas are identified, techniques for improving social skills are introduced. Usually, changes are made in one area at a time to ensure you don't get overwhelmed.

A therapist may describe a particular skill, explain how to carry it out, and model the behavior. Complex behaviors like how to carry on a conversation may be broken down into smaller pieces such as introducing yourself, making small talk, and leaving a conversation. Therapists will also discuss both verbal and nonverbal behaviors.﻿﻿

SST Techniques

Research and Evidence

Research on the use of SST in treating SAD shows that it is effective whether executed alone or with another form of treatment. SST has also been shown to increase the results of group CBT for SAD.﻿﻿

In general, SST is most effective when used as part of a comprehensive treatment program involving multiple components. Therefore, if you have severe social anxiety, social skills training may be helpful for you-both for your social skills and anxiety about social situations.

Areas of Development

Social skills are the building blocks of social interaction. If you have SAD, you may have missed out on developing some of these important skills. However, you can always learn them no matter your age.

Being Assertive

Assertiveness helps you relate to others in a way that balances the needs of everyone. If you have a tendency to defer to others, it can feel uncomfortable when you first start asserting yourself. However, in the long run, assertiveness will help to reduce anxiety and make both you and the people around you more comfortable.

Communicating Non-Verbally

Nonverbal communication, also known as body language, plays a large role in communication. People with social anxiety disorder tend to have "closed" body language that signals to others that you are unapproachable or unfriendly.﻿﻿ While this is a natural result of anxiety, it is possible to work on having more open and friendly nonverbal behaviors.

Communicating Verbally

Verbal communication is another skill. The art of conversation may seem like a puzzle if you have social anxiety disorder. You probably have trouble knowing what to say or feel uncomfortable talking about yourself. But, conversations are foundational to building relationships and knowing how to better navigate them will help you get acquainted with those around you.

Making Introductions

Introductions are a way of making people feel comfortable. Whether you are called upon to make introductions or you are being introduced, it is important to know the rules of these social encounters. Knowing how to confidently make introductions is a very useful social skill.

Practicing Active Listening

Active listening involves paying attention, asking questions, and reflecting on what someone says. When you practice active listening, the other person in the conversation feels heard. If you are coping with SAD, practicing active listening may actually help you focus more on others and less on yourself.

Overcoming Telephone Phobia

While the telephone is part of communication, it has its own peculiarities that can make it difficult for those with a social anxiety disorder. You might be afraid to answer the phone, make calls, or even record a voice greeting.

If you have a phobia of using the phone, there are a number of tips and tricks that you can use to overcome your fear. In addition, you can practice exposure therapy on your own to gradually desensitize yourself to using the phone.

Accepting and Giving Compliments

If you live with SAD, you probably have trouble gracefully accepting compliments and may not give compliments easily. Learning these two social skills is important. Compliments are a way of initiating and deepening relationships. They are also great conversation starters and a good way to show appreciation for others.

A Word From Verywell

Building and improving upon your social skills is an important component of treatment for social anxiety disorder and is crucial to better negotiating social situations. If you find yourself severely lacking social skills, talk with your treatment professional about training or other methods for improving your abilities.

If you have not yet been diagnosed with SAD, the first step is to visit your doctor. From there, you can work together to design a treatment plan that meets your specific needs.

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Social skills training (SST) is a type of behavioral therapy used to improve social skills in people with mental disorders or developmental disabilities. SST may be used by teachers, therapists, or other professionals to help those with anxiety disorders, mood disorders, personality disorders, and other diagnoses.

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Meditation for Increased Cognitive Functioning 

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Meditation for Increased Cognitive Functioning 

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If meditation took place before a stressful event, the effects of the stress were lessened by the calming effects of meditation. This study was completed on healthy, adult males, who meditated before or after a stress-inducing computer game.

https://ezproxy.uindy.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mnh&AN=21417807&site=ehost-live

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This is an app one can use to do the thought record

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CBT Thought Record Diary on the App Store

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about CBT Thought Record Diary. Download CBT Thought Record Diary and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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This tool helps someone change the way they look at a situation and helps them examine their beliefs and the consequences of those beliefs. KH

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ABC Model for REBT (Worksheet) | Therapist Aid

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Rational emotive behavioral therapy (REBT)-a form of CBT-uses the ABC model to explain the interaction between thoughts, emotions, and behaviors....

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Heavy Work and Sensory Processing Issues: What You Need to Know- JS

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Heavy Work and Sensory Processing Issues: What You Need to Know- JS

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Your child may get a number of therapies to help with her sensory processing issues. But specialists who work with her may recommend one you may not have heard of. It's called heavy work activities. Occupational therapists commonly use heavy work to help kids who seek or avoid certain kinds of sensory input.

Here's what you need to know about heavy work activities and how they can help.

Proprioception and Heavy Work

We typically think of people as having five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. But there are two other senses that can affect motor skills. One is called the vestibularsense, and it controls balance and movement. The other is called the proprioceptive sense, and it controls body awareness.

A child's sense of body awareness and balance comes from the way receptors in her muscles and joints send messages to her brain. They tell her where her body is in space, where each body part is and what it's doing. It's the way she knows how much force to use to complete a task, like writing on paper or shutting a door.

This system doesn't always work as effectively in kids with sensory processing issues. A child may write too lightly with her pencil or slam the car door really hard. She may think she's pushing down hard enough with the pencil or that she's using less force to shut the door than she actually is.

When kids struggle with this, proprioceptive input helps them know where their body is and what it should be doing. That input is also known as heavy work.

How Heavy Work Can Help Kids With Sensory Processing Issues

Most people get enough physical input from daily activities. But some kids with sensory processing issues may not. They need extra help "jump-starting" the systems that control balance, movement and body awareness. That's where heavy work activities come in.

Heavy work is any type of activity that pushes or pulls against the body. It could be something like swimming or vacuuming. With those activities, the resistance of the water or the vacuum cleaner creates the push or pull.

Or it could be something like jumping on a trampoline or hanging on playground equipment. In those cases, a child's own weight creates that resistance.

Kids with sensory processing issues often seek (or avoid) sensory input. A child who seeks input is looking for proprioceptive input. That's because it can help calm her body and make her feel more oriented in space. Without heavy work activities, she may seek input by crashing into or jumping off things or in other unsafe ways.

Heavy work is designed to provide that input in safer, more consistent ways. When kids do heavy work throughout the day, it can help them feel more organized before they need to seek input.

The most effective heavy work activities activate as many muscles and joints as possible at the same time, and for a short period of time. That means not all heavy work is equal. Some activities-like swimming-are more effective and powerful than others.

How to Provide Heavy Work at Home

Heavy work doesn't actually have to be work. Many of the activities that can help your child self-regulate are just typical play and everyday chores.

You can try some of these activities at home. Keep in mind that because they're not all equal, your child may have to complete more of them or do them for a longer period of time before you see improvement.

Heavy work can be part of a sensory diet. A sensory diet is a series of physical activities and accommodations tailored to give your child the unique sensory input she needs. You can do a sensory diet at home. But you'll need to work with an occupational therapist to find the activities that are most beneficial to your child and to create a routine that works best for her.

Here are some activities that use movement and resistance to provide sensory input:
Household Chores

Taking out the trash

Pushing a vacuum cleaner

Mopping or sweeping

Carrying a full laundry basket

Carrying groceries

Cooking (such as stirring or kneading bread dough)

Moving chairs/furniture or rearranging books on shelves

Shoveling snow or raking leaves

Pushing the shopping cart in a store

Outdoor Play

Riding a tricycle or bicycle

Playing catch (perhaps with a weighted ball)

Swinging on monkey bars

Climbing on the playground

Jumping rope or on a trampoline

Playing hopscotch

Wheelbarrow walking (walking on her hands while you hold her feet)

Swimming

Inside Play

Playing Twister

Squishing play-dough

Blowing bubbles

Wrestling (only if your child won't get overexcited!)

Marching or running in place

Doing push-ups (either on the floor or against the wall)

It's a good idea to take notes and observe how certain activities affect your child. Some may help and others may overstimulate her system. Knowing that can help you work to adjust and find the right routine.

Learn more about other strategies you can try at home, including ways to help your child cope with:

If you haven't touched base with her teacher, discover ways to talk to the teacher about sensory processing issues. Get tips on how to manage sensory meltdowns. And read a teacher's tip about her "go to" heavy work technique.

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Heavy Work and Sensory Processing Issues: What You Need to Know

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Your child may get a number of therapies to help with her sensory processing issues. But specialists who work with her may recommend one you may not have heard of. It's called heavy work activities. Occupational therapists commonly use heavy work to help kids who seek or avoid certain kinds of sensory input.

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Many people often struggle to express themselves in an effective way. While there are some individuals who communicate quite easily with others, there are also some people who have no idea as to how to begin engaging conversations. However, instead of becoming frustrated, consider trying the following games and exercises to sharpen your communication skills.

This game is designed to improve people's skills in both listening and speaking. It is a somewhat old game that is still quite effective today. Many people may remember playing this game as a young child in school, as teachers often use it to show how gossiping and not listening can be harmful.

However, this game can be very effective for families and employees as well. The first person in the game must simply choose a phrase and quietly whisper it in the next person's ear. That person will then whisper the phrase to the next person and so on until they reach the last person in the group.

Once the last person has listened to the phrase, each person must write down what they thought they heard. The group will then be able to see how much the phrase changed as it was passed down the line. This game shows people the importance of getting information from the initial source rather than from other people.

Fill in the Blanks

This game is especially helpful in building effective communication skills between you and your child, spouse or other close persons. One of the people in the group will make up a sentence, leaving out certain words such as "When you ___, I feel ___." This game is extremely effective in building communication skills and strengthening relationships.

However, when playing this game, it is essential to focus on the answers people offer, without trying to change behaviors or place blame on someone. Additionally, you should steer away from becoming controlling, angry or negative. This exercise is meant to help you understand other's emotions.

Four at a Time

This exercise is best when conducted with a large group of people. It is designed to strengthen nonverbal communication and the ability to cooperate as a team. Each participant will need a chair, and four people at a time must stand for no longer than 10 seconds. They will then sit back down, and four more people will stand up and so on.

There is no talking allowed during this exercise, so nobody knows who will be standing up next. While most people perform this exercise for about 10 minutes total, some people may perform it longer if they wish. The goal of this exercise is to find a way that only four people will stand at a time, maintaining proper levels of nonverbal communication and teamwork.

Good communication skills are essential for people to interact with others. There are many ways to strengthen your communication skills, and some ways are through games and exercises. The above exercises and games will not only help you strengthen your skills in communicating, but they will help you build strong relationships as well.

Looking for More Games? There are lots of great ideas here: 104 Activities That Build: Self-Esteem, Teamwork, Communication, Anger Management, Self-Discovery, Coping Skills

Here's another exercise you can try when you or someone you know has trouble accepting constructive criticism:

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Effective Communication Games and Exercises

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Many people often struggle to express themselves in an effective way. While there are some individuals who communicate quite easily with others, there are also some people who have no idea as to how to begin engaging conversations. However, instead of becoming frustrated, consider trying the following games and exercises to sharpen your communication skills.

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Cognitive skills and Belief- Gratitude Game

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Cognitive skills and Belief- Gratitude Game

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This can help in social skills and communication as well! (LP)

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- KO

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I have been taking children on mindfulness walks this summer and they really enjoy them! I noticed that preschool and early school aged children seem to especia

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The sensory benefits of yoga for kids are impressive! Yoga is a GREAT way to get proprioceptive (joints/heavy work) and vestibular (inner ear/balance) input. And it's just plain fun. Try out these yoga poses for kids!

CLICK HERE: Sensory Yoga Poses for Kids

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Yoga Poses for Kids | The Sensory Spectrum

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The sensory benefits of yoga for kids are impressive! Yoga is a GREAT way to get proprioceptive (joints/heavy work) and vestibular (inner ear/balance) input. And it's just plain fun. Try out these yoga poses for kids! CLICK HERE: Sensory Yoga Poses for Kids

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This article primarily focuses on tasks that adult can do to eliminate distraction, however, some of these strategies can be adopted by
school-aged children.

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[Editor's note: ADD/ADHD is a neurobehavioral disorder characterized by difficulty sustaining attention, lack of self-control, and impaired working memory. Nearly 8 million adults in the U.S. suffer from ADHD, and it's estimated that less than 20% are diagnosed and treated. The non-medical treatment options vary and although the items on this list might not work for everyone, we hope they can get you started.]
Managing ADHD symptoms at work can be incredibly difficult.

So we asked the BuzzFeed Community and reached out to experts for their advice for staying productive and distraction-free on the job.

We spoke to Dr. David Goodman, Assistant Professor at John Hopkins and director of Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Center of Maryland, Russell Barkley, Ph.D., ADHD expert and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Medical University of South Carolina, and J. Russ Ramsay, Ph.D, Co-Director of the Adult ADHD Treatment and Research Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

2. Sort your email inbox so it prioritizes important unread emails at the top, and includes everything else below.

Caroline Kee / Via BuzzFeed

"If you tend to forget to respond to emails, you need to sort out the important work-related ones so they come into your inbox first," says Ramsay. Find out how to sort your Gmail here.

5. Use sensory cues to remind you to focus if you tend to ~space out~.

Recognize your degree of distractibility, Goodman says - whether it's every 10, 15, 30 minutes you tend to zone out. Make sure you have a cue, such as a vibration on your phone or watch, or a pop-up on the computer that can re-orient you and remind you to focus.

12. Maybe even create arbitrary deadlines, like finishing one task by the end of a playlist or album.

13. Set a timer for when you need to finish a task and move on.

15. Use a stress ball or grip-strengthener when you feel fidgety.

http://www.thinkstockphotos.com/image/stock-photo-holding-a-massage-ball/145925374/popup?sq=stress%20ball/f=CPIHVX/s=DynamicRank

http://www.amazon.com/fit-Starter-Hand-Grips-1-Pair/dp/B00C87JKCW/ref=pd_sim_200_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=41Skwb4zSnL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=0Q33B0ET04GQEY1Q3SQ6

"People often have trouble sitting still during long meetings and become so fidgety, it distracts other people," says Ramsay. Try something like this so you can move around without disrupting the meeting.

28. When you feel yourself becoming overwhelmed, take a moment to pause and reset your mind.
Disclaimer: Always consult with your doctor about your personal health and wellness. BuzzFeed posts are for informational purposes only and are no substitute for medical diagnosis, treatment, or professional medical advice.

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Editor's note: ADD/ADHD is a neurobehavioral disorder characterized by difficulty sustaining attention, lack of self-control, and impaired working memory. Nearly 8 million adults in the U.S. suffer from ADHD, and it's estimated that less than 20% are diagnosed and treated.

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How to Teach Cooking to Persons With Intellectual Disabilities - RS 

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How to Teach Cooking to Persons With Intellectual Disabilities - RS 

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Teach Cooking to Persons With Intellectual Disabilities

People with intellectual disabilities tend to be visual learners, and may not be able to read text. As such, incorporating picture recipes into any lessons about cooking will go a long way towards helping them learn the necessary skills. There are several commercially published picture cookbooks, or you can get recipes for free online. The recipes should be fairly straightforward. Making familiar foods usually works best. Scrambled eggs and toast is a classic recipe that is simple enough for a first cooking lesson.

Teach Individual Skills

Show how to perform cooking skills.

Demonstrate how to cut, peel, wash or grate food as needed for the recipe. Make sure the student can do these activities safely and at least somewhat independently before moving on to the cooking lesson.

Teach how to use cooking tools.

Teach the names of the measuring spoons and cups and how to use them.

Show how to use the stove.

Teach the students how to use the stove, oven, microwave, mixer or other kitchen tools, depending on what is needed for the recipe.

Read the recipe with the student.

Prepare the Recipe

A simple picture of an egg.

Copy pictures of the foods and steps needed to make the recipe. Cut them into 2-by-2-inch squares and put loop tape on the back.

Put two strips of loop tape on a long piece of cardboard and use this to hold the recipe as you go through each step.

Arrange the picture cards for the recipe on the communication board. Put them on the top strip of loop tape.

Tack or prop the recipe board where it is out of the way, but easily seen, while you cook.

Scrambled Eggs

Look at the list of ingredients with the student and then gather them on the counter.

The student should move the picture of an egg being cracked from the top strip of loop tape to the bottom strip.

Demonstrate how to crack an egg. As you are demonstrating, tell the student that you hit the egg on the side of the bowl to crack the shell and then separate the shell with your fingers. Remind the student to keep the shell out of the egg in the bowl.

Let the student try to crack the egg by himself. You may need to tell him exactly what to do. Some students may need hand-over-hand assistance, where you put your hands over his and physically help him crack the egg.

Look at the recipe with the student. Read the next step and then move the picture of stirring onto the bottom strip of the communication board.

Show the student how to mix up the egg with a fork. Let the student try. Depending on the student's ability level, she may need hand-over-hand assistance.

Read the next step in the recipe. Put the picture of a pan and a picture of butter onto the bottom strip of loop tape on the communication board.

Ask the student what happens next. He should respond that you put a pan on the stove, and then he should go ahead and put the pan on the stove. Show him how to add a little butter.

Look at the recipe with the student. Move the picture of a stove from the top strip of loop tape on the communication board to the bottom strip.

Have the student turn the stove onto medium heat. Tell her to wait until the pan gets hot and the butter melts.

Review the next step in the recipe with the student. Move the picture of pouring and another picture of a pan from the top strip of loop tape to the bottom strip.

The student pours the eggs into the hot pan. Tell him to stir until the eggs begin to form lumps of cooked egg. He may need help stirring. Use hand-over-hand assistance, as needed.

Ask the student what she should do when the eggs are cooked. She should say that you turn off the stove, and then she should turn the stove off.

Ask the student what to do with the eggs before he can eat them. He should say you need to put them on a plate, and then he can go ahead and put the eggs on a plate. Use hand-over-hand assistance, as needed, when he moves the eggs to the plate.

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How to Teach Cooking to Persons With Intellectual Disabilities | Synonym

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Teach Cooking to Persons With Intellectual Disabilities People with intellectual disabilities tend to be visual learners, and may not be able to read text. As such, incorporating picture recipes into any lessons about cooking will go a long way towards helping them learn the necessary skills.

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Social Skills Activities for Adults with Developmental Disabilities - RS

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Social Skills Activities for Adults with Developmental Disabilities - RS

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Inclusion program involving mentors who see past individual's with disabilities and/or their deficits to promote social participation and community.

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Kids have a lot to worry about including meeting expectations from school, meeting the expectations of all the adults in their life, bullying, navigating natural life changes that come with things such as starting school, having a new baby sibling, moving to a new home, and simply growing up. And some kids have experiences that go beyond the typical life events. They may experience trauma, mental health disorders, physical health conditions, more-than-typical family dysfunction, or abuse.

As a therapist specializing in play therapy, I work with children with many types of presenting problems. One common concern is anxiety. Here are three techniques for therapists or parents to help children manage their anxiety. (I'm sure you are aware of this, but I just want to note that parents should not try to take the place of a therapist. If your child has more than the typical anxiety or has gone through a difficult experience, consult with your doctor or a therapist.)
ANXIETY RELIEF TECHNIQUES 1. Blowing Bubbles
Children can learn deep breathing skills by using bubbles. Deep breathing is an excellent way to manage anxiety. It helps to activate the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) which is the system of the body in charge of the activities that a person performs when they are in a resting state. In contrast, the sympathetic nervous system is the system of the body that is responsible for when the body functions in a more reactive, automatic way (such as in the fight or flight response).

[See Therese J. Borchard's article " 3 Deep Breathing Exercises to Reduce Anxiety " for more information about deep breathing.]

To do this activity: Demonstrate and have children use bubbles while focusing on how they breathe to create a big bubble. Also, emphasize how this impacts their body and how it can train the body to feel more relaxed and to help them not to be so worried or nervous. Kids can practice their deep breathing skills even when they don't have the bubbles on hand.

Here is a video to help kids practice deep breathing in another way.
2. Worry Can
To help kids identify and discuss their worries, they can write down their worries and place them inside a can (with a lid). This helps kids to identify and express their worries instead of keeping them bottled up inside which can lead to even more difficulties. This activity can be modified to fit for the child's particular situation and personality.

To do this activity: Provide the child with a can or jar with a lid, paper, coloring and writing utensils. Have the child make a label for the can titled "Scary Things", "Fears", "Worries", or whatever seems appropriate for their experience. Next, have the child write down their worries on slips of paper and put them in the can. Another version is to have a child journal about their worries. Journaling has been found to help ease anxiety and reduce stress. The child can then discuss the worries with the adult.

[This activity was adapted from Hall, Kaduson, and Shafer, 2002.]
3. Calm-Down Box
Everyone has things that make them feel more at ease. This is true for children as well as adults. Helping children to become more aware of their own functioning including what triggers them to become anxious (or feel any sort of emotion), what helps them to relax, and to have the knowledge and belief that they can master control over their inner experience can greatly help them in managing their emotions and overcome their challenges.

To do this activity: Use a box and help the child come up with objects to put in the box. The objects should be things that help them to relax and calm down. Some examples of things that can be included are the following:

stress balls

wonder tubes (tubes with glitter and confetti)

lavender scented play-dough (or any kind of play-dough; lavendar can be a soothing scent)

bubbles

essential oils to help with anxiety

calming music (a CD or something to symbolize listening to music)

paper, pencil, crayons, markers

a book (especially one about stress-relief or anxiety)

Relaxation Reference Cards [from The Chaos and The Clutter]

(pic by cherylholt)

Anxiety Relief: 3 Activities to help Kids Manage Their Anxiety

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Anxiety Relief: 3 Activities to help Kids Manage Their Anxiety | Reflections from a Children's Therapist

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Kids have a lot to worry about including meeting expectations from school, meeting the expectations of all the adults in their life, bullying, navigating natural life changes that come with things such as starting school, having a new baby sibling, moving to a new home, and simply growing up.

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Exposure Hierarchy (Worksheet) | Therapist Aid

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Exposure hierarchies are a basic CBT tool for the treatment of anxiety. Use the Exposure...

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Useful if Paul's anger is caused by negative thoughts he has about himself or others

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Changing Negative Thoughts Worksheets and Activity

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Changing Negative Self-Talk Lesson and Activity In order for children to maintain a healthy self-esteem, it's important that they learn how to manage their negative self-talk. As children go about their day, their inner voice is ever

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Coping Skills (mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual ideas) HE

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Coping Skills (mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual ideas) HE

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I have several students on my caseload who struggle with anger management and emotional regulation. I loved this idea for Cool Down Cubes from Entirely Elementary and decided to make a set of my own.

Supplies:
Plastic ice cubes - I purchased a bag of 30 from Bed Bath & Beyond for less than $4
Container - The one pictured came from the Dollar Store
Permanent maker

Using a permanent marker write a safe "cool down" strategy on each ice cube. For example: count to ten, walk away, talk to a friend, take three deep breaths, etc. I also left a few of the cubes blank so that the students could come up with their own strategies. The original post suggested placing the ice cubes in the freezer for an additional "cool" effect. That's it! Easy right?

I have used the Cool Down Cubes in both individual and group settings to discuss ways to "cool-off" when angry and have gotten a great response from students. ﻿

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I have several students on my caseload who struggle with anger management and emotional regulation. I loved this idea for Cool Down Cubes from Entirely Elementary and decided to make a set of my own.

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Sequencing Photo Cards. These sequences facilitate recovery in various cognitive areas as well as rehabilitation across languages. Buy online at Alimed.com.

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Games to Improve Executive Functioning Skills

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Kids and young adults need extensive practice in strengthening their executive functioning skills. Executive functions are the processes in our brains that help

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LS

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Using pictures, guided videos, and simple step recipes to help with safe preparation of simple meals

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Food preparation skills cross a variety of curricular domains, and learning to prepare simple meals can improve independence and nutrition . An individual with disabilities who acquires cooking...

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Just like adults, kids deal with their fair share of stress and anxiety.  Check out these 12 coping skills for kids that can help them manage stress now and well into adulthood---SBD

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Just like adults, kids deal with their fair share of stress and anxiety. Check out these 12 coping skills for kids that can help them manage stress now and well into adulthood.

*This post contains affiliate links. Read more.

Stress is part of everyone's life. As an adult, you have experienced stress at one time or another. But did you know that kids experience stress too? Kids stress about school work, family, friendships or the future. Sometimes kids get stressed with adult worries, like the health of family members and paying the bills.

Certain times of the year are more stressful than others. When we head back to school, everyone (kids included) gets more stressed and has a harder time dealing with feelings in a healthy way.

But there's good news! Just as you can teach a child to brush their teeth or tie their shoes , dealing with stress is something that can be taught. Teaching kids coping skills to help with stressful situations now is wonderful because it's more likely they will become an adult with good coping skills for dealing with tough situations.

Think of coping skills as a collection of strategies to help deal with stress. In my work with children and adolescents, I've identified four main categories of coping skills: calming skills, skills designed to distract, skills that get kids moving, and skills to help kids learn more about their stressors.

Coping Skills to Help Kids Deal With Stress

Here are 12 examples of coping skills, divided by these four categories, that you can use today to help your child deal with stress.

Calming Coping Skills

1 || Take Deep Breaths and Make it Playful

Taking deep breaths can actually have a physiological effect on the body. When you're stressed, your body goes into fight, flight or freeze mode and your breathing automatically gets more shallow. To trick your body into getting back to a more restful state, take deep breaths. To make it a little more fun for kids, you can use bubbles, a feather or a stuffed animal.

Talk with your child about their favorite place. Have them think about what they hear, see, smell and feel when they are there. When they're having a tough time, they can take a mini vacation wherever they are just by closing their eyes and thinking of their favorite place.

3 || Take a Drink of Water

Sometimes the sensation of having a drink of water, especially a cold one, enter their body can help a child reset, take a quick break or energize them to move forward with the day. Try a water bottle or straw so the child has to suck against resistance to get a drink. This resistive sucking is a great oral sensory strategy for calming.

Distracting Coping Skills

Laughter and silliness can reduce stress. When kids are in a cranky mood, sometimes reading a funny book will make them laugh and relax a bit more. At my house, we love any book by Mo Willems . What makes your child laugh? ? Silly dance parties? Funny videos?

5 || Play a board game

There are so many fun and entertaining games out there. Arrange a play time with a friend of theirs and invite them to bring their favorite board games . What a fantastic way to spend the afternoon!

6 || Do a word find puzzle

When kids focus on solving the puzzle, their brains will be less focused on the stressful situation. Does your child dislike word puzzles? Pick something else they might enjoy, like or a hidden pictures puzzle .

Physical Coping Skills

7 || Play at a playground

When you are feeling stressed, your body gets a ton of extra energy. To release it, the best thing to do is to move. Visit a playground and encourage your child to run, climb and play with other kids. Check out these fun playground games for kids!

8 || Keep your hands busy

Find an item that your child enjoys holding or playing with and keep it nearby. Some ideas of great fidget toys include:

-Small stones

-Cards to shuffle

-Tangle Therapy fidgets

-Small shells

By simply taking a walk together, you and your child can take a break. Being outside in nature can be calming and relaxing for everyone.

Processing Coping Skills

10 || Talk about what's happening

A great way to get a snapshot of a child's day is to ask about their "roses" - happy and positive things that happened and their "thorns" - tough or negative things that happened at school. This can give you a good understanding of what's happening in their life day to day.

11 || Understanding Triggers for Stress

There are certain things that might make your child feel more frustrated and stressed. It could be a class presentation, small group work, or certain classes. Some situations that make your child feel stressed can't be avoided, but your child can be better prepared to deal with those triggers. Once you know what those triggers are, you can make a menu of strategies for your child to use to manage that stress.
12 || Where do they feel things in their body?
When kids have big feelings, their body can give them clues about it. Once they are able to recognize those clues, they can start to use the appropriate coping skill to deal with that stress. For example, have them think about the last time they felt worried and ask the following questions:

How did their neck and head feel?

How about their face?

Their arms and hands?

Their belly?

How did it make their legs and feet feel?

When they feel that way again, then they know it's probably time to use a coping skill to deal with stress

Does using these skills mean stress will go away? No! But they can help your child learn to cope with day to day stress a little bit more successfully.

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12 Coping Skills to Help Kids Deal With Stress - The Inspired Treehouse

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Just like adults, kids deal with their fair share of stress and anxiety. Check out these 12 coping skills for kids that can help them manage stress now and well into adulthood. *This post contains affiliate links. Read more. Stress is part of everyone's life.

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L.S.

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Ways to reduce challenging behaviors- JS

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Ways to reduce challenging behaviors- JS

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Interpersonal functioning and relationships are a human necessity because of the need to belong and connect with others. All humans are social beings and therefore therapists should consider treating clients within an interpersonal and relationship context.

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Multiple mindfullness techniques to help cope with difficult situations. Examples include journaling, deep breathing exercises, yoga, adult coloring pages and progressive muscle relaxation.

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You have definitely heard about CBT.

You may not know it, or you may not immediately assign meaning to those three letters placed side by side, but there's almost no doubt that you have at least a passing familiarity with CBT.

If you've ever interacted with a therapist, a counselor, or a clinician in a professional setting, you have likely participated in CBT. If you've ever heard friends or loved ones talk about how a mental health professional helped them recognize their fears or sources of distress and aided them in altering their behavior to more effectively work towards their goals, you've heard about the impacts of CBT.

CBT, or cognitive behavioral therapy, is one of the most used tools in the psychologist's toolbox. It's based on a fairly simple idea which, when put into practice, can have wildly positive outcomes.
Become a Science-Based Practitioner!
What is CBT?

This simple idea is that our unique patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving are significant factors in our experiences, both good and bad. Since these patterns have such a significant impact on our experiences, it follows that altering these patterns can change our experiences (Martin, 2016).

CBT aims to change our thought patterns, the beliefs we may or may not know we hold, our attitudes, and ultimately our behavior in order to help us face our difficulties and more effectively strive towards our goals.

The founder of CBT is a psychiatrist named Aaron Beck, a man who practiced psychoanalysis until he noticed the prevalence of internal dialogues in his clients, and realized how strong the link between thoughts and feelings can be. He altered the therapy he practiced in order to help his clients identify, understand, and deal with the automatic, emotion-filled thoughts that arise throughout the day.

Beck found that a combination of cognitive therapy and behavioral techniques produced the best results for his clients. In describing and honing this new therapy, Beck laid the foundations of the most popular and influential form of therapy of the last 50 years.

This form of therapy is not designed for lifelong participation, but focuses more on helping clients meet their goals in the near future. Most CBT treatment regimens last from five to ten months, with one 50 to 60 minute session per week.

CBT is a hands-on approach that requires both the therapist and the client to be invested in the process and willing to actively participate. The therapist and client work together as a team to identify the problems the client is facing, come up with new strategies for addressing them, and thinking up positive solutions (Martin, 2016).

Cognitive Distortions

Many of the most popular and effective CBT techniques are applied to what psychologists call "cognitive distortions" (Grohol, 2016).

Cognitive distortions: inaccurate thoughts that reinforce negative thought patterns or emotions.

Cognitive distortions are faulty ways of thinking that convince us of a reality that is simply not true.

There are 15 main cognitive distortions that can plague even the most balanced thinkers at times:

Filtering

Filtering refers to the way many of us can somehow ignore all of the positive and good things in our day to focus solely on the negative. It can be far too easy to dwell on a single negative aspect, even when surrounded by an abundance of good things.

Polarized Thinking / "Black and White" Thinking

This cognitive distortion is all about seeing black and white only, with no shades of grey. This is all-or-nothing thinking, with no room for complexity or nuance. If you don't perform perfectly in some area, then you may see yourself as a total failure instead of simply unskilled in one area.

Overgeneralization

Overgeneralization is taking a single incident or point in time and using it as the sole piece of evidence for a broad general conclusion. For example, a person may be on the lookout for a job but have a bad interview experience, but instead of brushing it off as one bad interview and trying again, they conclude that they are terrible at interviewing and will never get a job offer.

Jumping to Conclusions

Similar to overgeneralization, this distortion involves faulty reasoning in how we make conclusions. Instead of overgeneralizing one incident, however, jumping to conclusions refers to the tendency to be sure of something without any evidence at all. We may be convinced that someone dislikes us with only the flimsiest of proof, or we may be convinced that our fears will come true before we have a chance to find out.

Catastrophizing / Magnifying or Minimizing

This distortion involves expectations that the worst will happen or has happened, based on a slight incident that is nowhere near the tragedy that it is made out to be. For example, you may make a small mistake at work and be convinced that it will ruin the project you are working on, your boss will be furious, and you will lose your job. Alternatively, we may minimize the importance of positive things, such as an accomplishment at work or a desirable personal characteristic.

Personalization

This is a distortion where an individual believes that everything they do has an impact on external events or other people, no matter how irrational the link between. The person suffering from this distortion will feel that they have an unreasonably important role in the bad things that happen around them. For instance, a person may believe that the meeting they were a few minutes late in getting to was derailed because of them, and that everything would have been fine if they were on time.

Control Fallacies

Another distortion involves feeling that everything that happens to you is a result of external forces or due to your own actions. Sometimes what happens to us is due to forces we can't control, and sometimes what happens is due to our actions, but the false thinking is in assuming that it is always one or the other. We may assume that the quality of our work is due to working with difficult people, or alternatively that every mistake someone else makes is due to something we did.

Fallacy of Fairness

We are often concerned about fairness, but this concern can be taken to extremes. As we know, life is not always fair. The person who goes through life looking for fairness in all their experiences will end up resentful and unhappy. Sometimes things will go our way, and sometimes they will not, regardless of how fair it may seem.

Blaming

When things don't go our way, there are many ways we can explain or assign responsibility for the outcome. One method of assigning responsibility is blaming others for what goes wrong. Sometimes we may blame others for making us feel or act a certain way, but this is a cognitive distortion because we are the only ones responsible for the way we feel or act.

Shoulds

"Shoulds" refer to the implicit or explicit rules we have about how we and others should behave. When others break our rules, we are upset. When we break our own rules, we feel guilty. For example, we may have an unofficial rule that customer service representatives should always be accommodating to the customer. When we interact with a customer service representative that is not immediately accommodating, we might get angry. If we have an implicit rule that we are irresponsible if we spend money on unnecessary things, we may feel exceedingly guilty when we spend even a small amount of money on something we don't need.

Emotional Reasoning

This distortion involves thinking that if we feel a certain way, it must be true. For example, if we feel unattractive or uninteresting in the current moment, we must be unattractive or uninteresting. This cognitive distortion boils down to:

"I feel it, therefore it must be true."

Clearly our emotions are not always indicative of the objective truth, but it can be difficult to look past how we feel.

Fallacy of Change

The fallacy of change lies in expecting other people to change as it suits us. This ties into the feeling that our happiness depends on other people, and their unwillingness or inability to change, even if we push and press and demand it, keeps us from being happy. This is clearly a damaging way to think, since no one is responsible for our happiness except for us.

Global Labeling / Mislabeling

This cognitive distortion is an extreme form of generalizing, in which we generalize one or two instances or qualities into a global judgment. For example, if we fail at a specific task, we may conclude that we are a total failure in not only this area, but all areas. Alternatively, when a stranger says something a bit rude, we may conclude that he or she is an unfriendly person in general. Mislabeling is specific to using exaggerated and emotionally loaded language, such as saying a woman has abandoned her children when she leaves her children with a babysitter to enjoy a night out.

Always Being Right

While we all enjoy being right, this distortion makes us think we must be right, that being wrong is unacceptable. We may believe that being right is more important than the feelings of others, being able to admit when we've made a mistake, or being fair and objective.

Heaven's Reward Fallacy

This distortion involves expecting that any sacrifice or self-denial on our part will pay off. We may consider this karma, and expect that karma will always immediately reward us for our good deeds. Of course, this results in feelings of bitterness when we do not receive our reward (Grohol, 2016).

Many tools and techniques found in CBT are intended to address or reverse these cognitive distortions.

You can download the printable version of the infographic here.

9 Essential CBT Techniques and Tools

There are many tools and techniques used in CBT, many of which have spread from the therapy context to everyday life. The nine techniques and tools listed below are some of the most common and effective CBT practices.

Journaling

This technique is a way of "gathering data" about our moods and our thoughts. This journal can include the time of the mood or thought, the source of it, the extent or intensity, and how we responded to it, among other factors. This technique can help us to identify our thought patterns and emotional tendencies, describe them, and find out how to change, adapt, or cope with them.

Unraveling Cognitive Distortions

This is a main goal of CBT, and can be practiced with or without the help of a therapist. In order to unravel the cognitive distortions you hold, you must first become aware of which distortions you are most vulnerable to. Part of this involves identifying and challenging our harmful automatic thoughts, which frequently fall into one of the categories listed earlier.

Cognitive Restructuring

Once you identify the distortions or inaccurate views on the world you hold, you can begin to learn about how this distortion took root and why you came to believe it. When you discover a belief that is destructive or harmful, you can begin to challenge it. For example, if you believe that you must have a high paying job to be a respectable person, but you lose your high paying job, you will begin to feel bad about yourself.

Instead of accepting this faulty belief that leads you to think unreasonably negative thoughts about yourself, you could take this opportunity to think about what makes a person "respectable," a belief you may not have explicitly considered before.

Exposure and Response Prevention

This technique is specifically effective for those who suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). You can practice this technique by exposing yourself to whatever it is that normally elicits a compulsive behavior, but doing your best to refrain from the behavior and writing about it. You can combine journaling with this technique, or use journaling to understand how this technique makes you feel.

Interoceptive Exposure

This technique is intended to treat panic and anxiety. It involves exposure to feared bodily sensations in order to elicit the response, activate any unhelpful beliefs associated with the sensations, maintain the sensations without distraction or avoidance, and allow new learning about the sensations to take place. It is intended to help the sufferer see that symptoms of panic are not dangerous, although they may be uncomfortable.

Nightmare Exposure and Rescripting

Nightmare exposure and rescripting is intended specifically for those suffering from nightmares. This technique is similar to interoceptive exposure, in that the nightmare is elicited, which brings up the relevant emotion. Once the emotion has arisen, the client and therapist work together to identify the desired emotion and develop a new image to accompany the desired emotion.

Play the Script Until the End

This technique is especially useful for those suffering from fear and anxiety. In this technique, the individual who is vulnerable to crippling fear or anxiety conducts a sort of thought experiment, where they imagine the outcome of the worst case scenario. Letting this scenario play out can help the individual to recognize that even if everything they fear comes to pass, it will likely turn out okay.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)

This is a familiar technique to those who practice mindfulness. Similar to the body scan, this technique instructs you to relax one muscle group at a time until your whole body is in a state of relaxation. You can use audio guidance, a YouTube video, or simply your own mind to practice this technique, and it can be especially helpful for calming nerves and soothing a busy and unfocused mind.

Relaxed Breathing

This is another technique that is not specific to CBT, but will be familiar to practitioners of mindfulness. There are many ways to relax and bring regularity to your breath, including guided and unguided imagery, audio recordings, YouTube videos, and scripts. Bringing regularity and calm to your breath will allow you to approach your problems from a place of balance, facilitating more effective and rational decision making (Megan, 2016).

These techniques can help those suffering from a range of mental illnesses and afflictions, including anxiety, depression, OCD, and panic disorder, and they can be practiced with or without the guidance of a therapist. To try some of these techniques without the help of a therapist, see the next section for worksheets and handouts to assist with your practice.

You can download the printable version of the infographic here.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Worksheets (PDF) To Print and Use

If you're a therapist looking for ways to guide your client through treatment or a hands-on person who loves to learn by doing, there are many CBT worksheets that can help.

Alternative Action Formulation

This worksheet instructs the user to first list any problems or difficulties you are having. Next, you list your vulnerabilities (i.e., why you are more likely to experience these problems than someone else) and triggers (i.e., the stimulus or source of these problems).

Once you have defined the problems and understand why you are struggling with them, you go on to list coping strategies. These are not solutions to problems, but ways in which you can deal with the effects of these problems that can have a temporary impact. Next, you list the effects of these coping strategies, such as how they make you feel in the short-term and long-term, and the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy.

Finally, you move on to listing alternative actions. If your coping strategies are not totally effective against the problems and difficulties that are happening, you are instructed to list other strategies that may work better.

This worksheet gets you (or your client) thinking about what you are doing now and whether it is the best way forward. You can find it here.

Functional Analysis

One popular technique in CBT is functional analysis. This technique helps you (or the client) learn about yourself, specifically what leads to specific behaviors and what consequences result from those behaviors.

In the middle of the worksheet is a box labeled "Behaviors." In this box, you write down any potentially problematic behaviors or other behaviors you wish to analyze.

On the left side of the worksheet is a box labeled "Antecedents," in which you or the client write down the factors that preceded a particular behavior. These are factors that led up to the behavior under consideration, either directly or indirectly.

On the right side is the final box, labeled "Consequences." This is where you write down the consequences of the behavior, or what happened as a result of the behavior under consideration. "Consequences" may sound inherently negative, but they are not necessarily negative; some positive consequences can arise from many types of behaviors, even if more negative consequences result as well.

This worksheet can help you or your client to find out whether particular behaviors are adaptive and helpful in striving towards your goals, or destructive and self-defeating. Follow this link to print out this worksheet and give it a try.

Longitudinal Formulation

This worksheet helps you address what some CBT therapists call the "5 P Factors" - presenting, predisposing, precipitating, perpetuating, and positives. This formulation process can help you connect the dots between your core beliefs and thought patterns and your present behavior.

This worksheet presents five boxes at the top of the page, which should be completed before moving on to the rest of the worksheet.

The first box is labeled "Precipitating Events / Triggers," and corresponds with the Precipitating factor. In this box, you are instructed to write down the events or stimuli that provoke a certain behavior.

The next box is labeled "Early Experiences" and corresponds to the Predisposing factor. This is where you list the experiences that you had early on, all the way back to childhood, that may have contributed to the behavior.

The third box is "Core Beliefs," which is also related to the Predisposing factor. This is where you write down some of the relevant core beliefs you have regarding this behavior. These are beliefs that may not be explicit, but that you believe deep down, such as "I'm bad" or "I'm not good enough."

The fourth box is "Old Rules for Living," which is where you list the rules that you adhere to, whether consciously or subconsciously. These implicit or explicit rules can perpetuate the behavior, even if it is not helpful or adaptive. Rules are if-then statements that provide a judgment based on a set of circumstances. For instance, you may have the rule "If I do not do something perfectly, I'm a complete failure."

The final box is labeled "Presenting Problems / Effects of Old Rules." This is where you write down how well these rules are working for you. Are they helping you to be the best you can be? Are they helping you to effectively strive towards your goals?

Below this box there are two flow charts that you can fill out based on how these behaviors and feelings are perpetuated. You are instructed to think of a situation that produces a negative automatic thought, and record the emotion and the behavior that this thought provokes, as well as the bodily sensations that can result. Filling out these flow charts can help you see what drives your behavior or thought and what results from it.

Below these two charts is the box "Protective Factors." This is where you list the factors that can help you deal with the problematic behavior or thought, and perhaps help you break the perpetuating cycle. This can be things that help you cope once the thought or behavior arises or things that can disrupt the pattern once it is in motion.

Finally, the last box is "New Rules for Living." This box relates to the Positive factor, in that it provides you with an opportunity to create new rules for yourself that will disrupt the destructive cycle and allow you to become more effective in meeting your therapeutic goals. Click here if you'd like to try this worksheet.

Dysfunctional Thought Record

This worksheet is especially helpful for people who are struggling with negative thoughts and need to figure out when and why they are most likely to pop up. By learning more about what provokes certain automatic thoughts, they become easier to address and reverse.

The worksheet is divided into seven columns:

On the far left, there is space to write down the date and time a dysfunctional thought arose.

The second column is where the situation is listed. The user is instructed to describe the event that led up to the dysfunctional thought in detail.

The third column is for the automatic thought. This is where the dysfunctional automatic thought is recorded, along with a rating of belief in the thought on a scale from 0% to 100%.

The next column is where the emotion or emotions elicited by this thought are listed, also with a rating of intensity on a scale from 0% to 100%.

The fifth column is labeled "Distortion." This column is where the user will identify which cognitive distortion(s) they are suffering from with regards to this specific dysfunctional thought, such as all-or-nothing thinking, filtering, jumping to conclusions, etc.

The second to last column is for the user to write down alternative thoughts, more positive and functional thoughts that can replace the negative one.

Finally, the last column is for the user to write down the outcome of this exercise. Were you able to confront the dysfunctional thought? Did you write down a convincing alternative thought? Did your belief in the thought and/or the intensity of your emotion(s) decrease? To give this worksheet a try, click here.

Fact or Opinion

One of my favorite CBT worksheets is the "Fact or Opinion" worksheet, because it can be extremely helpful in recognizing that your thoughts are not necessarily true.

At the top of this worksheet is an important lesson:

Of course, it can be hard to accept this, especially when we are in the throes of a dysfunctional thought or intense emotion. Filling out this worksheet can help you come to this realization.

The worksheet includes 16 statements that the user must decide are either fact or opinion. These statements include:

I'm a bad person.

I failed the test.

I'm selfish.

I didn't lend my friend money when they asked.

This is not a trick - there is a right answer for each of these statements. (In case you're wondering, the right answers for the statements above are as follows: opinion, fact, opinion, fact.)

This simple exercise can help the user to see that while we have lots of emotionally charged thoughts, they are not all objective truths. Recognizing the difference between fact and opinion can assist us in challenging the dysfunctional or harmful opinions we have about ourselves and others.

If you'd like to print out this worksheet to give it a try, click here.

Cognitive Restructuring

This worksheet employs the use of Socratic questioning, a technique that can help the user to challenge irrational or illogical thoughts.

The top of the worksheet describes how thoughts are a running dialogue in our minds, and they can come and go so fast that we hardly have time to address them. This worksheet aims to help us capture one or two of these thoughts and analyze them.

The first box to be filled out is "Thoughts to be questioned." This is where you write down a specific thought, usually one you suspect is destructive or irrational.

Next, you write down the evidence for and against this thought. What evidence is there that this thought is accurate? What evidence exists that calls it into question?

Once you have identified the evidence, you can make a judgment on this thought, specifically whether it is based on facts or your feelings.

Next, you answer a question on whether this thought is truly a black and white situation, or whether reality leaves room for shades of grey. This is where you think about whether you are using all-or-nothing thinking, or making things unreasonably simple when they are truly complex.

In the last box on this page, you consider whether you could be misinterpreting the evidence or making any unverified assumptions.

On the next page, you are instructed to think about whether other people might have different interpretations of the same situation, and what those interpretations might be.

Next, ask yourself whether you are looking at all the relevant evidence, or just the evidence that backs up the belief you already hold. Try to be as objective as possible.

The next box asks you whether your thought may an exaggeration of a truth. Some negative thoughts are based in truth, but extended past their logical boundaries.

Next, you are instructed to consider whether you are entertaining this negative thought out of habit or because the facts truly support it.

Once you have decided whether the facts support this thought, you are encouraged to think about how this thought came to you. Was it passed on from someone else? If so, are they a reliable source for truth?

Finally, you complete the worksheet by identifying how likely the scenario your thought brings up actually is, and whether it is the worst case scenario.

These " Socratic questions" encourage a deep dive into the thoughts that may plague you, and offer an opportunity to analyze and evaluate them for truth. If you are having thoughts that do not come from a place of truth, this worksheet can be an excellent tool for identifying and defusing them.

For more CBT worksheets and handouts, visit this website.

Some More CBT Interventions and Exercises

Haven't had enough CBT tools and techniques yet? Continue on for more useful and effective exercises!

Behavioral Experiments

These are related to thought experiments, in that you engage in a "what if" consideration. Behavioral experiments differ from thought experiments in that you actually test out these "what ifs" outside of your thoughts (Boyes, 2012).

In order to test a thought, you can experiment with the outcomes that different thoughts produce. For example, you can test the thought:

"If I criticize myself, I will be motivated to work harder" vs. "If I am kind to myself, I will be motivated to work harder."

First, you would try criticizing yourself when you need motivation to work harder and record the results. Then you would try being kind to yourself and recording the results. Next, you would compare the results to see which thought was closer to the truth.

These behavioral experiments can help you learn how to best strive towards your therapeutic goals and how to be your best self.

Thought Records

Thought records are useful in testing the validity of your thoughts (Boyes, 2012). They involve gathering and evaluating the evidence for and against a particular thought, allowing for an evidence-based conclusion on whether the thought is valid or not.

For example, you may have the belief "My friend thinks I'm a bad friend." You would think of all the evidence for this belief, such as "She didn't answer the phone the last time I called" or "She cancelled our plans at the last minute", and evidence against this belief, like "She called me back after not answering the phone" and "She invited me to her barbecue next week. If she thought I was a bad friend, she probably wouldn't have invited me."

Once you have evidence for and against, the goal is to come up with more balanced thoughts, such as

"My friend is busy and has other friends, so she can't always answer the phone when I call. If I am understanding of this, I will truly be a good friend."

Thought records apply the use of logic to ward off unreasonable negative thoughts and replace them with more balanced, rational thoughts (Boyes, 2012).

Pleasant Activity Scheduling

This technique can be especially helpful for dealing with depression (Boyes, 2012). It involves scheduling activities in the near future that you can look forward to.

For example, you may write down one activity per day that you will engage in over the next week. This can be as simple as watching a movie you are excited to see or calling a friend to chat. It can be anything that is pleasant to you, as long as it is not unhealthy (i.e., eating a whole cake in one sitting or smoking).

You can also try scheduling an activity for each day that provides you with a sense of mastery or accomplishment (Boyes, 2012). It's great to do something pleasant, but doing something small that can make you feel accomplished may have longer lasting and farther reaching effects.

This simple technique can introduce more positivity into your day and help you make your thinking less negative.

Imagery Based Exposure

This exercise involves thinking about a recent memory that produced strong negative emotions and analyzing the situation.

For example, if you recently had a fight with your significant other and they said something hurtful, you can bring that situation to mind and try to remember it in detail. Next, you would try to label the emotions and thoughts you experienced during the situation and identify the urges you felt (e.g., to run away, to yell at your significant other, to cry).

Visualizing this negative situation, especially for a prolonged period of time, can help you to take away its ability to trigger you and reduce avoidance coping (Boyes, 2012). When you expose yourself to all of the feelings and urges you felt in the situation and survive experiencing the memory, it takes some of its power away.

Situation Exposure Hierarchies

This technique may sound complicated, but it's relatively simple.

Situation Exposure Hierarchies involves making a list of things that you would normally avoid (Boyes, 2012). For example, someone with severe social anxiety may typically avoid making a phone call instead of emailing or asking someone on a date.

Next, you rate each item on how distressed you think you would be, on a scale from 0 to 10, if you engaged in it. For the person suffering from severe social anxiety, asking someone on a date may be rated a 10 on the scale, while making a phone call instead of emailing might be rated closer to a 3 or 4.

Once you have rated each item, you rank them according to their distress rating. This will help you recognize the biggest difficulties you face, which can help you decide which items to address and in what order. It may be best to start with the less distressing items and work your way up to the most distressing items.

A CBT Manual and Workbook for Your Own Practice + for Your Client

If you're interested in giving CBT a try with your clients, there are many books and manuals that can help get you started. Some of these books are for the therapist only, and some are to be navigated as a team or with guidance from the therapist.

There are many manuals out there for helping therapists apply CBT in their work, but these are some of the most popular:

For clients or for therapist and client to work through together, these are some of the most popular manuals and workbooks:

There are many other manuals and workbooks out there that can help get you started with CBT, but these are a good start.

5 Last Cognitive Behavioral Activities

Before we go, there are a few more CBT activities and exercises that may be helpful for you or your clients that we'd like to cover.

Mindfulness Meditation

As readers of this blog will likely know by now, mindfulness can have a wide range of positive impacts, including helping with depression, anxiety, addiction, and many other mental illnesses or difficulties.

Mindfulness can help those suffering from harmful automatic thoughts to disengage from rumination and obsession over these thoughts by helping them stay firmly grounded in the present.

Successive Approximation

This is a somewhat fancy name for a simple idea that you have likely already hear of: breaking up large tasks into small steps to make it easier to accomplish.

It can be overwhelming to be faced with a huge goal we would like to accomplish, like opening a business or remodeling a house. This is true in mental health treatment as well, since the goal to overcome depression or anxiety and achieve mental wellness can seem like a monumental task to those who are suffering from severe symptoms.

By breaking the large goal into small, easy to accomplish steps, we can map out the path to success and make the journey seem a little less overwhelming.

Writing Self-Statements to Counteract Negative Thoughts

This technique can be difficult for someone just beginning their CBT treatment or suffering from severe symptoms, but it can also be extremely effective (Anderson, 2014).

When you (or your client) are being plagued by negative thoughts, it can be hard to confront them, especially if your belief in these thoughts is strong. To counteract these negative thoughts, it can be helpful to write down a positive, opposite thought.

For example, if the thought that you are worthless keeps popping into your head, try writing down a statement like "I am a person with worth" or "I am person with potential." In the beginning, it can be difficult to accept these replacement thoughts, but the more you bring out these positive thoughts to counteract the negative ones, the stronger the association will be.

Visualize the Best Parts of Your Day

When you are feeling depressed or negative, it is difficult to recognize that there is good in your life as well. This simple technique of bringing to mind the good parts of your day can be a small step in the direction of recognizing the positive (Anderson, 2014).

All you need to do is write down the things in your life that you are most thankful for or the things that are most positive in your day. The simple act of writing down these good things can forge new associations in your mind which make it easier to see the positive, even when there is plenty of negative as well.

Reframe Your Negative Thoughts

It can be all too easy to succumb to negative thoughts as a default setting. If you find yourself immediately thinking a negative thought when you see something new, such as entering an unfamiliar room and thinking "I hate the color of that wall," give reframing a try (Anderson, 2014).

Reframing involves countering the negative thought(s) by noticing things you feel positive about as quickly as possible. For instance, in the example where you immediately think of how much you hate the color of that wall, you would push yourself to notice five things in the room that you feel positively about (e.g., the carpet looks comfortable, the lampshade is pretty, the windows let in a lot of sunshine).

You can set your phone to remind you throughout the day to stop what you are doing and think of the positive things around you. This can help you to push your thoughts back into the realm of the positive instead of the negative.

You can download the printable version of the infographic here.

A Take Home Message

As always, I hope this post has been helpful. There are a lot of great tips and techniques in here that can be extremely effective in the battle against depression, anxiety, OCD, and a host of other problems or difficulties.

However, as is the case with many treatments, they depend on you (or your client) putting in a lot of effort. I would encourage you to give these techniques a real try, and allow yourself the luxury of thinking they may actually work. When we approach a potential solution with the assumption that it will not work, then it will probably not work. When we approach a potential solution with an open mind and the thought that it just might work, it has a much better chance of succeeding.

So if you are struggling with negative automatic thoughts, please consider these tips and techniques and give them a real shot. Likewise, if your client is struggling, encourage them to make the effort, because the payoff can be better than they can imagine.

If you are struggling with severe symptoms of depression or suicidal thoughts, please call the following number in your respective country:

USA: National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255

UK: Samaritans hotline at 116 123

The Netherlands: Netherlands Suicide Hotline at 09000767

France: Suicide écoute at 01 45 39 40 00

Germany: Telefonseelsorge at 0800 111 0 111 for Protestants, 0800 111 0 222 for Catholics, and 0800 111 0 333 for children and youth

For a list of other suicide prevention websites, phone numbers, and resources, see this website.
Become a Science-Based Practitioner!
Please know that there are people out there who care and that there are treatments that can help.

Thank you for reading, and please let us know about your experiences with CBT in the comments section. Have you tried it? How did it work for you? Are there any other helpful exercises or techniques that we did not touch on in this piece?

References

Anderson, J. (2014, June 12). 5 get-positive techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Everyday Health. Retrieved from http://www.everydayhealth.com/hs/major-depression-living-well/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-techniques/

Boyes, A. (2012, December 6). Cognitive behavioral therapy techniques that work: Mix and match Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques to fit your preferences. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-practice/201212/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-techniques-work

Grohol, J. (2016). 15 common cognitive distortions. Psych Central. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/lib/15-common-cognitive-distortions/

http://www.infocounselling.com/list-of-cbt-techniques/

Martin, B. (2016). In-Depth: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Psych Central. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/lib/in-depth-cognitive-behavioral-therapy/

Megan, R. (2016, August 8). List of CBT techniques - cognitive behavioral therapy. Info Counselling. Retrieved from http://www.infocounselling.com/list-of-cbt-techniques/

http://psychologytools.com

http://www.therapistaid.com

www.webmd.com - http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-for-depression#1

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25 CBT Techniques and Worksheets for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

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Sharing is caring. You have definitely heard about CBT. You may not know it, or you may not immediately assign meaning to those three letters placed side by side, but there's almost no doubt that you have at least a passing familiarity with CBT .

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Using mindfulness to demonstrate emotional regulation, decrease anxiety and depression, and increase self-compassion.

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Role Playing through activities that cause Paul to feel upset - Shelby. 

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Role Playing through activities that cause Paul to feel upset - Shelby. 

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Role Play Scripts: Conflict Resolution & Anger Management

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Role Play Scripts: Conflict Resolution & Anger Management

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Coping skills toolbox! Love this! And having clients make their own can be an art therapy bonus

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Provides many different activities and games that can be used. Many of the activities listed are not just exclusively for the older population and can be adapted or used with other populations as well

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Cognitive activities for the elderly help to keep their minds sharp and alert while reducing the risk or delaying the onset of age-related dementia.

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Multiple different games you can play on here from counting money to managing the money you have. Played two of these games and they were super fun! They also grade themselves as you go through the different simulators.

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Online Games and Apps That Teach Kids About Money

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Links to free online games and apps that teach kids about money.

Online Games for Young Kids

Free online finance games appropriate for elementary age students (grades K-5).

Peter Pigs Money Counter
Learning about money is fun with Peter Pig. In this interactive game, kids practice identifying, counting and saving money while learning fun facts about U.S. currency. After completing the game, players are rewarded with a trip to the virtual store to buy accessories within budget and dress up Peter Pig in fun scenes.

Wise Pockets
Interactive game for kids to learn about managing money. Resource guides for teachers and parents.

Fruit Shoot Coins
Requires kids to add the coins then shoot the fruit with the correct coin total.

H.I.P. Pocket Change
A number of games from the U.S. Mint that teaches kids about currency and managing money.

Online Games and Apps for Preteen and Teenagers

Free online finance games and apps appropriate for middle and high school age students (grades 6-12).

Financial Football
Interactive football game that requires players to answer personal finance questions. Lesson plans and other materials by grade level also from Visa.

Financial Soccer
Interactive soccer game that requires players to answer personal finance question. Lesson plans and other materials by grade level also from Visa.

Financial Entertainment
Financial Entertainment is a library of free online and mobile games, designed and developed by Commonwealth, that aim to improve personal financial capability, knowledge, and self-confidence.

Gen I Revolution: Online Personal Finance Game
Developed for middle school and high school students, this online game gives your students the chance to learn important personal finance skills as they play and compete against fellow classmates.

Chair The Fed Game
Learn how monetary policy works by taking charge of a simulated economy.

Plan'it Prom App
To help combat the high cost of prom, Visa's free app helps teens and parents budget for every prom-related expense.

Stock Market Game
The Stock Market Game is the right tool for you to help your students build a fundamental understanding of investing while providing them with real world skills practice in math, English Language Arts, economics, social studies, and other subjects.

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Online Games and Apps That Teach Kids About Money

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Information and resources from the Washington Department of Financial Institutions.

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12 Mindfulness Hacks You Can Use in 24 Hours

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Mindfulness is all the rage these days, and with good reason.

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The Game of Life offers opportunities to observe Paul’s motility, emotional regulation, and interaction with mother (if present) while simulating real-world events that Paul needs to understand in order to be independent.

-B. Lawson

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CBT and Social Skills Training with Role-Play + Social Skills Workbook

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CBT and Social Skills Training with Role-Play + Social Skills Workbook

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CBT with social skills training in group therapy sessions involving workbooks to learn appropriate social skills and then role-play social interactions with the group. A role-playing session would include being in a grocery store and asking staff for help or interacting with the cashier. This intervention is supported with Granholm et al. (2013) study in which middle-aged adults with a mental illness like Paul had deficits with social interactions.
-Savanah

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This would need to be adjusted for Paul's cognitive abilities. I would suggest creating a board with "emotional" faces (something similar to an illustrated pain scale). This would allow him to communicate how he is feeling effectively and efficiently. Using this activity can enhance his communication with his mother.

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Open Communication Journal with Kids

Proper communication is something that people can learn over time. One way we openly dialogue with our kids is our open communication journal. Before you get all upset about this concept, realize that I said ONE WAY. Of course kids need to learn skills in verbal as well as non-verbal communication. However, the written word can be another positive way to express oneself and open up communication with your children.

This method isn't for every child. Some children don't like to write, and this would feel like a chore. My daughter loves to write. She has pads of paper everywhere, and I see her drawing, writing lists, creating stories, and writing us notes about how she feels. A friend of mine started a communication journal with her daughter, and I thought it was a great concept. The other thing about my child is that she feels deeply. This, of course, can be a very positive trait. However, where there is a positive, there is always the flip side to parent through. When emotions run deep, I want to give her a number of tools for identifying her emotions and expressing them in a productive way. Things can easily become very dramatic around here, and I have had to find techniques for navigating the storms effectively.

This journal is a dialogue we have back and forth. It is tucked away in a place that only she and I know about. When she is feeling emotions deeply but doesn't feel like talking verbally at the time, she can go there and write. I can write back to her about what she is feeling. This has been going on for quite some time, and I have found that giving her the opportunity to write things down has helped. I also think it helps when I respond that I understand how she is feeling and then further discuss the situation. Empathy can be such a powerful tool in parenting.

The journal entry you see above is a entry I have been given permission to share by my daughter. I would love to share more entries, but I want her to feel safe in this space we have created. The entry above related to a situation we talked about. She had misunderstood what someone was asking her to do, so she felt unjustly in trouble for her choice of behavior. She became upset about the situation. I sat down to talk to her about it. I like to try and help her label her emotions. After she explained the situation and still seemed super sad and frustrated, I taught her a new word for her - "misunderstood." She immediately identified with that word but still wanted time to herself. I then saw her sneak out of my room, where we had the conversation, and grab her communication journal and slip back away. She was still processing.

Here's another excerpt of one of my responses to something she had written:

We communicate in a lot of ways around here, and I just want to give my kids a variety of tools to see if there is a particular method that resonates with them so that they can really navigate their emotions well.

You could also make your own journal with your kids by following this simple craft.

More Parenting Tips About Communicating with Kids
Helping Kids Verbalize their Emotions Showing Empathy How to Stop the Whining and Crying Secret Hand Symbol to Teach Behavior

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Proper communication is something that people can learn over time. One way we openly dialogue with our kids is our open communication journal. Before you get all upset about this concept, realize that I said ONE WAY. Of course kids need to learn skills in verbal as well as non-verbal communication.

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1000+ images about Mental Health Activities for Kids and Teens on ...

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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Los Angeles

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In a previous article, I outlined a technique in which you can use a pie chart as a way of making a decision about how to act when you feel overwhelmed. Another cognitive therapy use of the pie chart is to, in graphic form, re-examine how you think about things. Writing our thoughts down can be a helpful tool to gain perspective, and creating a visual representation can be even more effective in impacting our unhelpful thought patterns.

This article will focus on how to use the pie technique to reevaluate how we make sense of situations that don't go the way we want. This technique is especially useful in helping us rethink things we unfairly blame ourselves for.

Step 1: Identify the automatic thought that comes to your mind when you are being hard on yourself for something going wrong. For instance, if you get a bad grade on a test you might have the thought, "I failed because I'm stupid."

Step 2: Come up with a list of alternative explanations - as many as you can think of. These need not be mutually exclusive explanations. In most cases, all of them probably played some part in the outcome. For the example above, your list may include things like:

The test was difficult.

I missed several classes.

I studied the wrong material.

The teacher rushed through the material.

Bad luck.

Step 3: Assign a percentage to each explanation. The percentage should reflect the degree to which each explanation contributed to the situation. For instance, the explanation "I missed several classes" might receive a 50% if a large portion of the test was on material covered during the missed classes. However, if the classes missed were not especially important, you might assign it less importance, like 15%. After going through the list of alternative explanations, assign a percentage to your original automatic thought. Add up the percentages to make sure they add up to 100%. If they don't, reassign the percentages until they do.

Step 4. Finally, use the percentages to draw a pie chart. You can do this freehand or use a program like Microsoft Excel to do this quickly.

Now that you've spent time seriously considering alternative explanations, you'll likely put a little less stock in the original automatic thought. The less you believe the unhelpful appraisal, the more you'll feel a softening of the negative emotion that goes with it. Moreover, by considering other factors implicated in the situation, you'll probably feel more empowered to do something to solve the problem, or change your behavior the next time you're in a similar situation.

Click here for more information about cognitive behavioral therapy.

All material provided on this website is for informational purposes only. Direct consultation of a qualified provider should be sought for any specific questions or problems. Use of this website in no way constitutes professional service or advice.

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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Pie Chart Technique II

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In a previous article, I outlined a technique in which you can use a pie chart as a way of making a decision about how to act when you feel overwhelmed . Another cognitive therapy use of the pie chart is to, in graphic form, re-examine how you think about things.