Emotions can be an enigma to kids with special needs. They often find it difficult to express emotion or to identify what they or others are feeling. A post at Lending Hands Resources gives parents a peek into the whys and hows to connect kids with special needs to their emotions.

How to Help Kids with Special Needs Express Emotion

1. Children may know how they feel, but don’t have words to attach to them. To help them, use emoticons—those smiley face-ish icons that express different emotions—to show children which words are attached to which feelings.
2. Some children can draw a picture to depict how they feel. Drawing can help them work process feelings and provides a mental image for attaching to their feelings in the future.
3. Children may need to detach from their emotions and express them through imaginative play. This can be done by allowing them to tell their feelings through a doll.
4. Stories and story books help children learn about different emotions and how to appropriately express them. This can be especially effective with younger children.
5. Games are another way for children to learn about identifying and expressing emotions. Elementary-age children  may respond especially well to this technique.

What Would You Add to the List?

Do you have a child with special needs who has a hard time identifying and expressing emotion? Have you discovered techniques or products to help them grow in this area? Share your story in the comment box below or provide a link to products that work for you…so we can all be happy 🙂 instead of sad 🙁 or angry >:O!

Do you like what you see at DifferentDream.com? You can receive more great content by subscribing to the quarterly Different Dream newsletter and signing up for the daily RSS feed delivered to your email inbox. You can sign up for both in the upper right column on this page.

Photo Credit: www.freedigitalphotos.net