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social development

Penguin Emotions Game

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Emotions game for social emotional development with a penguin theme

Today, I have a very fun virtual therapy slide deck to share. This emotions game is designed with a penguins theme, and can help kids identify emotions based on facial expressions, specifically the eyes. There is a lot of emotion in the eyes! Kids may or may not pick up on this emotional expression, depending on their development in social emotional learning. I created a penguins gross motor slide deck this week, and got a little carried away with the penguin theme…but how cute are these little guys, right? Use them for helping kids identify feelings and emotions based on expressions, and a few other skills that are addressed in therapy. Let’s break this activity down…

This emotions game has a penguins theme and helps kids learn about identifying emotions and feelings.

Teach Emotions with a Game

Ok, this therapy game is very fun to play, and it will be a huge hit, depending on the testers in my own home. But first, let’s break this down on the various skills that this emotions game addresses:

  • Identifying emotions
  • Naming feelings
  • Identifying facial expressions
  • Exploring emotional expression in the eyes
  • Social emotional learning

Then, there are the other skills that are addressed, because of the way that this therapy slide deck is presented and organized:

  • Visual discrimination
  • Visual scanning
  • Visual attention
  • Visual memory
  • Form constancy

This game is such a fun way to build skills in a variety of areas. Games for emotions and feelings are sometimes difficult to find, and so this free resource should be a great starting point for helping children with the areas listed above.

Emotion Matching Game

To play this emotional expression game, you’ll just need to load the slide deck onto your Google drive. Then, you can play in virtual therapy sessions with clients, or in home therapy programs, or even as a fun brain break in the distance learning classroom.

Kids can identify emotions and facial expressions in this emotions game using a penguin theme.

Next, ask children to complete the first slide in the deck. You’ll notice that there are text boxes on the slide where kids can identify the feelings or emotions based on the penguin’s expressions. Kids can type them into the box or they can say or write the feelings words.

On the next slides in the deck, kids can find the matching facial expressions for each penguin. Each slide has four penguins with different emotions expressed with their eyes. There are only penguins that match between the two circles.

This slide deck is so useful in helping kids work on visual perceptual skills, too. By visually scanning for the matching penguins, they are using visual discrimination, form constancy, visual attention, and visual memory. All of these skills are important not only in social emotional skills, but handwriting, reading, math, and other learning tasks as well.

Kids can move the ice cube to cover the matching penguins. The ice cube is an interactive piece on the Google slide deck. You will notice that there are two ice cubes. One is over top the other, so once you move the first ice cube to cover one of the penguins, the other ice cube is right below that. Kids can slide both ice cubes to cover the matching penguins.

I love this game for the emotions matching. It’s set up as an “I Spy” game for emotions and facial expressions, and kids will LOVE it!

More Emotional Learning Resources

This activity goes really well with some of the other emotions and feelings tools here on the website. These emotional learning tools can be used together:

  1. Identifying emotions can be hard for kids who are early in social emotional learning development. Try this identifying emotion faces worksheet. It’s another free resource, so you can print it and begin using the printable right away.

2. Kids respond well to the stories in children’s books. Pair social emotional learning with popular kids’ books and hands-on activities. Here is information on how to teach social emotional development with children’s’ books.

3. Emotions and empathy are very closely related. Use this hands-on activity to teach empathy.

4. What is social emotional learning? Here are resources and information to help.

5. Emotional development occurs through play. This blog post includes examples of social emotional development and strategies to help kids develop these essential skills. Check out the comments on that post for strategies that The OT Toolbox community uses to develop social emotional skills.

6. Emotional regulation and executive functioning skills go hand-in-hand. Here is information on executive functioning and emotional development. You’ll find information on these connections, the research involved, and strategies to help.

Emotions Game for Teletherapy

Want to add this emotions game to your therapy toolbox?

You can grab a copy of this Google slide deck and use it to work on specific skills.

Enter your email address below and you will receive a PDF containing a link to copy the slide deck onto your Google drive.

Google Slide Deck TIPS:

  1. Save the PDF file that you receive once you enter your email below, because you can come back to it again and again and send it to the kids on your caseload (or classroom) so they can make their own copy on their Google drive.
  2. You will be prompted to make a copy of the slide deck. Before clicking that, be sure that you are logged into your Google account.
  3. Make a copy for each student’s Google Drive. When you share it, make sure you enable edit capabilities for users.
  4. The pieces will be moveable in “edit” mode. If you click “present”, the movable ice cubes won’t work.
  5. Be sure to make a copy of this slide deck and not change the url to indicate “edit” at the end. When you make a copy of the slide deck onto your Google drive, you will end up with your own version that you are free to adjust in order to meet your student’s needs. By changing the url to “edit”, you can potentially mess up the original version that many other therapists and The OT Toolbox users are given.
  6. To easily start a new game- Once you’ve gone through all of the slides, go to “history” on the top of the Google dashboard. You will be able to revert the slide to it’s original state using the history option, so all of the ice cubes go back to their original place. The history option is located on the top dashboard by clicking the link that says, “last edit was…”. When you click on that, you will see a list of edits made on the right side of your screen. Click on the edit titled, “New Game (Revert slides to their original state)”. This should move all of the movable ice cubes back to their original location on the slide deck. The typed in emotions on the text boxes will disappear as well. Note that you can delete edits from that list, so if several students are using the slides, you can keep the organization simple and delete edit versions that you no longer need.

FREE Emotions Game -Penguin Theme!

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    Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

    Emotional Development Toys

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    emotional development toy

    Today, I’m excited to share information on emotional development toys that you can add to your emotional skills toolbox! Occupational therapy toys are used to develop skills through play and emotional development is just one of those areas. Toys and play are powerful tools to teach children about emotions. Add these emotional skills toys to support social emotional learning in kids.

    emotional development toys

    Emotional Development Toys

    When you take a look at social emotional skills, there is a lot to it! Emotional development contributes to one’s ability to regulate behaviors, participate in learning or social situations, make and keep friends, and management of emotions in everyday situations. Also, social emotional development is a precursor to learning and has been linked to academic performance.

    Here are more friendship activities to use as well in promoting development of these skills.

    Emotional development occurs from a very young age. In fact, social emotional learning develops from infancy!

    This site has some great graphics that break down development of emotional skills by age.

    Social Emotional Development Examples

    When you think of emotional development, you probably think about a child’s ability to react and respond to situations with emotional maturity. But, in fact, that part of emotional development occurs much later in childhood. Social emotional development looks like many things leading up to emotional maturity!

    Emotional development examples include things such as:

    • Facial expressions in response to interactions
    • Positive attachments at the infants and toddler stage
    • Eye contact (but not always an indicator for all children)
    • Identifying different expressions in others
    • Identifying and labeling emotions based on words, expressions, actions in others
    • Identifying emotions and feelings in self based on situations or responses to situation
    • Paying attention and using self-control
    • Expression of a variety of emotions
    • Copying facial expressions
    • Uses words to express feelings
    • Empathy for others (with sequential progression through the stages of empathy development)
    • Having and recovering from temper tantrums
    • Pretend play with emotions
    • Using and identifying a variety of emotions
    • Making friends
    • Social awareness
    • Positive self-image
    • Healthy self-talk or inner voice
    • Managing emotions
    • Emotional regulation
    • Asks for help when needed
    • Impulse control in social situations
    • Identifying emotions in the situation and responding with functional regulation strategies

    How to support emotional development

    There are many ways to support social emotional skills using emotional development toys and activities. Some examples include modeling emotional regulation and strategies a child can use. Using describing language to put words to emotions and feelings is another strategy parents can use to support emotional development.

    One important way to support a child’s social emotional skills is through play.

    Play and emotional development

    Through play, it is possible to identify emotions, practice emotions, model interactions, and show empathy. Play offers the chance for children to practice skills in a “safe” environment.

    Try this free social emotional learning worksheet with children to help them identify emotions.

    Children can learn so much about emotional development through play! Try these strategies to use play as a medium for developing social emotional skills:

    • Use imaginative play to practice emotions and responses- Imaginative play offers a variety of situations where emotions, feelings, empathy, and responses can be practiced. Practicing emotions, language, and regulation strategies by playing “house”, doctor, school, shopping, pretend kitchen, or pretend construction, or any other pretend play environment offers so many opportunities for development of skills.
    • Play games to build emotional skills- Games offer children the chance to win or lose, where they can respond to that status in different ways. This offers a great opportunity to talk about expectations, impulse control, attention, turn-taking, expectations, and responding to other’s wins or losses.

    A printable set of emotions play dough mats can be used to build emotional skills in kids, through play.

    • Read books to support emotional development- Books offer a chance to put yourself in another’s place. Reading books with children offers an opportunity to open up conversations on how a character acted in a situation and what the child might have done in that situation. It’s a great way to practice social responses, empathy, and self-regulation strategies. Here are great children’s books (and fun activities based on the books) related to social emotional learning:

    Exploring Books Through Play uses children’s literature as a theme to engage in fun, hands-on activities that help children and adults delve deeper into the characters and lessons, bringing the stories to life and falling further in love with literature. Read a story and then bring the characters to life while learning and building skills. Each story offers unique activities designed around central themes of friendship, empathy, and compassion.

    Each chapter in Exploring Books through Play includes 5 activities for each of the 10 children’s books. The activities are perfect for children ages 3-8, can be used in small groups or as a whole class, and are easily adapted to a home or classroom setting.

    • Talk about choices, emotions, and responses in play- Using play as a means to work on development of these skills. Play offers a chance for children to make choices and opens opportunities to practice sensory regulation strategies for emotional responses.
    • Use emotional development toys– Toys that offer a way for children to identify facial expressions, practice empathy in imaginative play, and the opportunity to practice regulation are powerful tools.

    Want to help kids learn more about complex concepts such emotions, empathy, compassion, and differences?

    Whatsitsface Emotional Development Toy

    Recently, I came across the Whatsitsface plush toy on Instagram. This emotional development toy helps children develop emotions through imaginative play. Kids can adjust the moveable parts to change the toy’s facial expression and practice emotional development skills through play.

    Kids can practice their understanding of emotions in a safe and interactive way. Whatsitsface allows children to put emotions into a language they understand and provides a chance to practice management of emotions.

    The plush emotional development toy has 6 different facial expressions that children can easily change themselves in two different ways.

    Check out the blog comments below to learn about reader strategies for teaching children about emotions and emotional development.

    Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

    Gratitude Activities

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    gratitude activities

    Gratitude activities and specific ways to teach gratitude is an important part of child development. But gratitude can be a complex and abstract topic for kids. Sometimes, putting together a few hands-on activities can be a helpful way to show children how to express gratitude for the people, things, and places in their lives that they are thankful for. There’s more; Gratitude is an early social-emotional skill that fosters children’s social emotional learning as well as a core skill that relates to successes and relationship skills later in life. Use the gratitude ideas described here to help children build this essential soft skill while targeting motor development, making activities for gratitude development fun and functional.

    Gratitude activities for children and families

    Gratitude Activities

    These gratitude games, activities, and hands-on play ideas help children foster this soft skill.

    I’ve tried to pull together several activities and ideas that help children understand thankfulness and see that feeling in action through play and activities.

    You’ll find book-related thankfulness activities, gratitude games, thankfulness crafts, and other gratefulness activities to teach gratitude to children and even adults.

    You’ll find a teaching gratitude therapy slide deck that occupational therapists and other child professionals can use in teletherapy to teach this skill, while targeting other areas like fine motor skills, gross motor, mindfulness, and even handwriting.

    There’s more to it, though. Helping children foster gratitude helps them later in life.

    Gratitude Activities Foster Social Emotional Learning

    I mentioned in the first paragraph, the significance of teaching gratitude to children. This soft skill is a powerful one to start early with toddlers and preschoolers. But, teaching the ability to be self-aware, and cognizant of one’s well-being, even in difficult times is a powerful instrument in fostering grit and resilience.

    More so, teaching gratitude to children allows them to build essential roadmaps to social emotional learning and prepares them for successes later in their life.

    Social and emotional skills are founded on self-awareness, emotions, and the connection between the emotions, thoughts, actions that we see in children. The ability for children to manage their behaviors, thoughts, and actions (or behaviors) rests in perspective, impulse control, and self-awareness.

    When children can connect the dots between other people’s perspectives and having empathy for others, they are able to maintain and build relationships. And, when children are in that mindset of being mindful of others and how their own actions, thoughts, behaviors, and actions impact others, social emotional awareness takes place. That ability to make responsible decisions about their choices can flourish when a child is grateful for what the have and their ownership in any given situation.

    Gratitude leads to self-awareness, perspective of others, kindness, and empathy.

    For children, having and expressing gratitude helps them to recognize the tools they have already as a way to be resilient against obstacles and challenges. When kids are aware of the things they have, the special skills they posses, or people they have in their corner, they can use those things so they are empowered, and not overwhelmed.

    These are big concepts and deep connections for children!

    Many adults struggle with these very same concepts. But, to say that these ideas are too deep or advanced for children doesn’t mean that we can’t work on gratitude as a building block for social emotional awareness and development. Instead, we can provide gratitude activities that help children build and establish these skills.

    Research tells us that positive emotions, including gratitude, promote happiness and flourishing, creating an upward spiral (Fredrickson, 2009, Seligman, 2011). This upward spiral is a tool in a child (or adult’s) toolbox for learning, development, interaction with others, and day to day success.

    Gratitude Activities for Children

    So, how can we foster this appreciation for the world around us? Below, you’ll find gratitude activities and gratefulness activities to help children become genuinely more thankful for people, things, and their own self-awareness.

    Discuss thankfulness- Talk with children about the things, people, situations, and skills they have available to them which are things to be thankful for. Expressing gratitude for the smallest gifts that we have in our lives, of any kind, helps children communicate and establish gratitude. Try this gratitude craft to help children count their blessings and to create a physical reminder of all that they have to be thankful for.

    Model gratitude- Parents can express their gratitude and be a visible example to children so they can be thankful in any given situation, even when things seem difficult or challenging. Parental examples of thankfulness despite challenging situations is a powerful reinforcement that allows children to learn gratitude by “seeing” and “doing” as they learn to use the skills and “tools” they have available to them. In this way, kids learn in the moment and see gratitude in action. This can be shown in many ways:

    • Parents can tackle difficult situations with positivity.
    • By saying thank you to others, kids see an example of gratitude in action.
    • Say things like, “I’m so grateful for…”
    • Put a positive spin on difficult situations as an example of a positive mindset: “this is hard, but I am thankful I can…”

    Express gratitude on a daily basis- Being consistent with thankfulness can help children learn this abstract concepts in very concrete ways. These gratitude printable worksheets and activities can be part of a daily gratitude exercise, as a family.

    Incorporate books- This Bear Says Thanks activity helps children to see gratitude in action in a childhood book and then pair the book with a fine motor activity that allows them to count their blessings.

    Make gratitude part of the home- Make a gratitude tree as a way to express family gratitude. The daily reminder will become part of the home and is a reminder of all the things in life that there are to be thankful for.

    Teach gratitude- Helping kids to understand what gratitude means and looks like can involve the whole body. This teaching gratitude slide deck targets fine and gross motor skills, mindfulness, and even handwriting.

    Journal gratitude- We know that writing down the things that we are thankful for promotes a better mindset and overall wellbeing.  Keeping a daily journal with children can be a way wot foster the positive impact of daily gratitude. Ask children to write down just one or two things each day that they are thankful for. What would you add to that list for today?

    The Impulse Control Journal is a child-friendly way to write down gratitude and to use that journaling to foster mindset and self-awareness through quick checklists where kids can write out their strengths, qualities, supports, and insights.

    Impulse Control Journal the OT Toolbox
    • Fredrickson B.L. Crown; New York: 2009. Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace The Hidden Strength Of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, And Thrive. [Google Scholar]

    Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

    Social Emotional Learning

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    Occupational therapists and parents can use these social emotional learning activities to help children develop positive relationships, behaving ethically, and handling challenging situations effectively.

    Social emotional learning is defined as a process for helping children gain critical social skills for life effectiveness, such as developing positive relationships, behaving ethically, and handling challenging situations effectively. The specific skills that allow kids to function and complete daily occupations (such as play, learning, participating in social situations, rest, dressing, writing, riding a bike, interacting with others…) are those social emotional skills that help children to recognize and manage emotions, interact with others, think about their feelings and how they should act, and regulate behavior based on thoughtful decision making.

    One piece of addressing underlying social emotional learning needs in kids is the fact that the behaviors that we see have an underlying cause that can be found as a result of regulation of emotions, making decisions, and acting on impulses. Social emotional skills are not always a cut and dry aspect of development.

    Social emotional learning is an important part of child development and an essential skill that kids need to accomplish daily tasks.

    What is Social Emotional Learning?

    Today, I wanted to expand on that idea. So many times, we run into children on our therapy caseloads or in our classroom (or hey, even in our own homes!) who struggle with one area…or several. Remembering that beneath the behaviors, troubles with transitions, acting out, irritability, sleep issues, inflexible thoughts, frustrations, etc…can be emotional regulation components.

    Let’s consider some of the ways our kids may struggle with social and emotional competencies. We might see kids with difficulty in some of these occupational performance areas (occupational performance = the things we do…the tasks we perform):

    • Academics/learning
    • Management of stress in learning/chores/daily tasks
    • Creating of personal goals in school work or personal interests and following through
    • Making decisions based on ethical and social norms in play, learning, or work
    • Understanding/Engaging in social expectations (social norms) in dressing, bathing, grooming, etc.
    • Social participation
    • Conflict resolution with friends
    • Empathizing with others
    • Responding to feedback in school, home, or work tasks
    • Making good judgement and safety decisions in the community
    • Showing manners
    • Responding to the moods of others and reaching out to others as a support system (both an aspect of co-regulation skills)
    • Understanding subtle social norms in the community or play
    • Transitions in tasks in school or at home
    • Ability to screen out input during tasks
    • Cooperation in play and in group learning
    • Considering context in communication
    • Emotional control during games
    • Understanding mood and affect and how this relates to behavioral responses

    Wow! That list puts into perspective how our kids with regulation concerns really may be struggling. And, when you look at it from the flip-side, perhaps some of our children who struggle with, say, fine motor issues may have sensory concerns in the mix too.

    Occupational therapists and parents can use these social emotional learning activities to help children develop positive relationships, behaving ethically, and handling challenging situations effectively.

    Social Emotional Learning Activities

    When we equip our students with tools to identify their emotions and self-regulate, we are giving them tools for life and promoting a positive environment for learning. We can foster social emotional development through play and interactions.

    What might this look like at home, in online schooling, or in a classroom setting?

    1. Connect emotions to behavior- Children may not have the language knowledge or understand how to explain what they are feeling. They may need concrete examples or scenarios to help them understand how their emotions are tied to their behavior. Does a storm make them feel nervous or scared? How do they react when they feel anxious about a test or quiz? When they argue with a sibling, how do they react? Once they are able to understand their emotions and how they are feeling, they can start using emotional regulation tools and strategies.

    Use this social emotional learning worksheet to help kids match emotions to behaviors and coping strategies.

    2. Be flexible and patient- Flexibility is something we have all been thrown into more than usual lately. But working with children on emotional regulation and understanding their emotions takes patience and being flexible. You may need to change up how you introduce emotions, or maybe a strategy you thought would work isn’t.

    3. Set the tone and share your own feelings- This may feel uncomfortable for some of us, but sharing our own feelings with our students and clients and modeling the responses and strategies we are encouraging them to use will have a huge impact.

    4. Try specific social skills activities- Social skills activities are those that help kids build underlying emotional and regulation strategies so that making friends, emotions, kindness, empathy, self-awareness, self-management, and other socio emotional tools are built at the foundation. One way to do this is by setting up a system for an emotions check in or a feelings check in to start the day.

    A recent post here on The OT Toolbox has more ideas to develop social emotional learning by engaging in activities that foster emotional regulation and executive functioning skills.

    …it’s ALL connected!

    Another fantastic resource that can help develop social and emotional skills is the activity book, Exploring Books Through Play.

    This digital E-BOOK is an amazing resource for anyone helping kids learn about acceptance, empathy, compassion, and friendship. In Exploring Books through Play, you’ll find therapist-approved resources, activities, crafts, projects, and play ideas based on 10 popular children’s books. Each book covered contains activities designed to develop fine motor skills, gross motor skills, sensory exploration, handwriting, and more. Help kids understand complex topics of social/emotional skills, empathy, compassion, and friendship through books and hands-on play.

    The book Exploring Books Through Play, has 50 different activities based on popular children’s books. Each book is used for 5 different activities that cover a variety of areas: sensory play, crafts, gross motor activities, fine motor activities, handwriting, scissor skills, and so much more.

    This book is designed to address emotional regulation and connecting with kids.

    social emotional activities for kids

    What’s Inside Exploring Books through Play?

    We have handpicked these easy and hands-on activities to help kids develop essential social emotional learning skills.

    As classroom curriculum becomes more focused on academics, social and emotional development can get lost in the shuffle. This book focuses on abstract concepts of friendship, acceptance and empathy. By using children’s books that foster understanding of these concepts through pictures and stories, we can help children understand and see these emotions in action. What if you could use books and interactive activities to teach friendship? What if you could read a book that centers on accepting differences and create or make an activity or craft that helps children see acceptance in action. What if you could explore emotions through story and interactive play? In this book, you will find books that cover abstract concepts and use play to build social and developmental skills.  The 10 books covered include:

    • A Sick Day for Amos McGee
    • Boy + Bot
    • Little Blue and Little Yellow
    • Red: A Crayon’s Story
    • Chrysanthemum
    • The Day the Crayons Quit
    • Leonardo the Terrible Monster
    • The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend
    • Whoever You Are and Penguin and Pinecone

    Want to help kids learn more about complex concepts such emotions, empathy, compassion, and differences?

    Creative book activities that help kids develop fine motor skills and gross motor skills, while exploring books.

    Exploring Books Through Play uses children’s literature as a theme to engage in fun, hands-on activities that help children and adults delve deeper into the characters and lessons, bringing the stories to life and falling further in love with literature. Read a story and then bring the characters to life while learning and building skills. Each story offers unique activities designed around central themes of friendship, empathy, and compassion.

    Each chapter includes 5 activities for each of the 10 children’s books. The activities are perfect for children ages 3-8, can be used in small groups or as a whole class, and are easily adapted to a home or classroom setting.

    Click here to get the Exploring Books Through Play resource.

    Hopefully, this resource, and these suggestions to support social emotional learning has been helpful. Remember that fostering SE development across the ages and stages fosters learning, educational participation, and functional performance in all contexts and environments. Specifically, social emotional learning is important to consider when creating self regulation IEP goals or when fostering self regulation and emotional regulation needs in the school environment.

    Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

    Social Skills Activities

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    Social skills activities for kids to use to build social emotional skills and learn kindness, empathy, awareness of others, and other social skill interventions needed to function.

    Today, I wanted to share some social skills activities and specific social skill interventions that can be used to help kids with social emotional learning and the components that help kids with emotional regulation and wellness. When kids struggle with big emotions, anxiety, fear, transitions, worries, outbursts, or social participation… social emotional development can be impacted. And, all we want is to help them by responding to their underlying needs and to support or connect with that individual.

    Social skills activities for kids to use to build social emotional skills and learn kindness, empathy, awareness of others, and other social skill interventions needed to function.

    Social Skills Activities

    We know that the underlying areas are the root of the “behavior” that we see. The ability to identify one’s emotions, and understand how internal characteristics influence our actions; These aspects maintain a sense of self-confidence and self-efficacy in coping with stress and managing impulses.

    The social skills activities listed here are some of the best ways to target emotional regulation tips, tools, and strategies that will give you a jump start in creating connections with your child or student.

    Be sure to check out and grab the resource, Exploring Books Through Play, a 50-activity guide on addressing social emotional learning and emotional regulation through play and exploration of popular children’s books.

    Created by an occupational therapist and educators, this digital resource has everything you need to manage and teach about emotions, help with regulation, mindset, empathy, self-awareness, and family connections.

    Exploring Books Through Play uses children’s literature as a theme to engage in fun, hands-on activities that help children and adults delve deeper into the characters and lessons, bringing the stories to life and falling further in love with literature. Read a story and then bring the characters to life while learning and building skills. Each story offers unique activities designed around central themes of friendship, empathy, and compassion.

    social emotional activities for kids
    Use these social skills activities to help kids build awareness of others and develop social emotional awareness.

    Social SKills Interventions

    These strategies are some of the ways to help kids develop social skills and emotional learning:

    Social Skills ACTIVITY #1: Role Models

    Kids can learn much about social situations including social norms and subtle cues by observing others. That’s why it’s important for parents and families to be a good role model when it comes to self-awareness, awareness of others, empathy, stress management, goal setting, and relationship situations such as preventing and resolving interpersonal conflict or seek help when needed.

    Modeling and practicing with children can include many aspects of social skills, including building friendships, kindness, empathy, and awareness of others.

    Games and activities that teach self control is one way to begin this process.

    Another important aspect is teaching task initiation.

    These self-awareness slide decks offer activities to teach about awareness of self and others.

    This children’s book and empathy craft is a tool for teaching empathy.

    These strategies to teach impulse control can be helpful in modeling activities.

    Social Skills Activity #2: Social Stories

    A social story is a story that describes a situation, skill, or concept in terms relevant to the reader. I’t provides social cues and perspectives so the reader can respond appropriately. Social stories are reassuring and well-understood by the reader, making them a social skills activity that can be used over and over again. Social stories use pictures and typically are individualized so they meet specific needs of the child and are focused on interests in a motivating manner.

    Social stories help children with social skill development because it defines what they should do in a positive manner, while identifying the social expectations which can be frustrating or confusing for some children.

    Social stories can be created to address a variety of functional tasks such as potty training or getting dressed. Others are based on emotions and interacting with friends. Still other social stories cover social situations such as wearing a mask when out and about.

    Social Skills Activity #3: Group Games

    Getting kids involved with group play and group activities is a powerful one in building social awareness, conflict resolution, problem solving, communication, and other important social skills like the critical thinking involved in making decisions.

    This group gross motor activity requires a group and also offers sensory input through the proprioceptive and vestibular systems.

    Pretend play is another way for kids to practice these important skills in social situations. Whether in a small group or alone, practice occurs through pretend play. Here are some pretend play ideas to get you started:

    Outdoor pretend play with bug toys

    Grow a pretend flower garden

    Pretend play felt cookies

    Using board games is another way to build social skills in a small group. Here are board games to help build skills.

    Social Skills Activity # 4: Social Scripts

    Social scripts offers a tactic for kids to respond to specific situations. Scripts might be in card format or a prompt that offers a cue. Social scripts can be created for when to do specific tasks like turning off screen time. Other kids may use social scripts for asking a friend to play.

    Social scripts are great for kids that read well or can follow verbal prompts. However, some scripts include pictures and images as well.

    Social Skills Activity # 5: Video Modeling

    Kids can use videos as a motivating way to observe and copy behavior or social situations in action. Some video modeling activities offer kids a way to know how to perform tasks. Others offer opportunities to see social situations in action.

    Video modeling can also be used to inform. Kids can watch videos of other children in specific situations and develop awareness of the subtle social rules well as norms. They can learn to empathize with others and take others’ perspectives while building an awareness of self.

    Social Skills Activity #6: Self-regulation

    By helping kids to better understand their senses and how sensory input impacts their behaviors, thoughts, and offer tools to help kids identify, address, and use strategies to achieve self-control and emotional regulation in a non-judgmental and safe way.

    Programs like the Zones of Regulation and How Does my Engine Run offer strategies to impact regulation into every day tasks.

    Helping kids understand their senses and how input impacts their behavior, actions, and emotions is a huge starting point for kids to get a handle on social skills.

    Social Skills Activity #7: Understanding emotions

    Helping kids to better understand emotions is an important step to helping kids understand themselves and how they react to situations. They can then transfer that understanding by better understanding others around them in social situations.
    Here is a free printable to help kids learn about emotions and their reaction or behavioral responses.

    In this resource on using children’s books and social emotional activities (fine motor, gross motor, art, crafts…) kids can learn about emotions of the main characters as they build the social skills needed to better understand and empathize with others.

    While this activity is pumpkin-themed, we used a face and manipulatives to help kids understand and identify emotions and facial expressions. Try this activity with any shape.

    A final word on social skills for kids

    The main thing to recognize from this list of activities is that it is possible to teach social skills to kids. Some children flourish with one strategy and others will appreciate another social emotional skill activity. Try some of these activities and mix and match others to build a social skills toolbox that will help kids thrive!

    Social Emotional Skills Resource

    Addressing underlying needs= Making a difference.

    Therapists know that all of the activities, programs, courses, worksheets, etc. that we use with clients are TOOLS for promoting skills. They are the strategies we use for meeting functional skills. They are the blueprint for helping clients reach goals. They are the means for fulfilling meaningful occupations!

    Exploring Books Through Play is focused on social emotional skills, regulation, connection with kids/families, and empowering kids by meeting the underlying sensory needs so that they can learn, play, and connect with others while building the skills they need to be functioning kiddos.

    Social skills activities in the books include ideas such as interactive play experiences, this book guides you through activities for each children’s book. The activities were designed to build fine motor skills, gross motor development, sensory exploration, and much more. By adding movement and fine motor activities, or multi-media sensory-based play and craft ideas, children can build motor experiences and develop skills through activities based on the concepts of each children’s book.

    As classroom curriculum becomes more focused on academics, social and emotional development can get lost in the shuffle. This book focuses on abstract concepts of friendship, acceptance and empathy.

    By using children’s books that foster understanding of these concepts through pictures and stories, we can help children understand and see these emotions in action.

    What if you could use books and interactive activities to teach friendship? What if you could read a book that centers on accepting differences and create or make an activity or craft that helps children see acceptance in action.

    What if you could explore emotions through story and interactive play?

    In this book, you will find books that cover abstract concepts and use play to build social and developmental skills. 

    Wow…do our kids need this, right??

    As therapists, we strive to focus on the whole child…and all of the sub-layers that play a part in development and growth. We focus on each child individually based on specific needs, strengths, and developmental levels. The connection between the brain, emotional development, sensory input and regulation are the “roots” to everything we do! Focusing on those underlying needs helps the child to flourish in higher-level aspects like being flexible, social participation, using good judgement, responding to feedback, transitioning between tasks, regulating emotions, and much more.

    And incorporating those “branches” fosters cognition, completion of tasks, higher-level learning, behaviors, and everything we see!

    The bottom-line is that using evidenced-based sensory experiences to improve areas such as cognition, learning, motor performance, etc. is the way to go! Overall, studies suggest that frequent, active participation in multi-sensory experiences can help regulate emotions, improve specific symptoms, address cognitive functions, motor performance, and focus. Research shows us that embedding social-emotional learning strategies within school curricula promotes improved behavior, academic performance, and social skills.

    It makes sense! In school an at home, on-task behavior is a required component for student participation. There is a lot to consider…and all of the components work together. sensory regulation, processing of sensory input, filtering out unnecessary input, focusing, transitions…And all of these areas are connected.

    Exploring Books through Play, hands-on and sensory-based movement activities to foster social emotional and sensory tools!

    Exploring Books Through Play will help to create simple book activities focused on play that fit into a family’s schedule, help parents figure out why their child is irritable or responds in the way they do.

    Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

    Free Social Emotional Learning Worksheets

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    Social Emotional Learning Worksheet

    I offered these free social emotional learning worksheets to my newsletter subscribers last week and I wanted to put it on the website so you could access it to. Here’s the thing: when kids are developing their social emotional learning skills, starting with emotional skills is very important in social development in children.

    Kids who have a good baseline understanding of emotions offers a means to better understand emotional growth. Kids can use social emotional activities like this worksheet to better understand emotions, including how they feel at different times, or how their emotions change in different situations.

    They can understand social situations and the emotions that others might exhibit with empathy and compassion. Add this social emotional skills worksheet to your friendship activities.

    While there are many uses for this emotions worksheet, one way we like to use it is in an emotions check in task. This can be used as part of a curriculum or to support overall self regulation needs by first becoming more aware of emotions, mood and affect.

    Social Emotional Learning Worksheet

    Free Social Emotional Learning Worksheet

    I love this emotions worksheet because it is a starting point for covering social emotional development in kids. It’s a great activity for children who are just beginning to understand emotions and how they respond, or to identify what leads up to a certain emotion.

    As therapists, we cover a lot on self-regulation. We talk about what’s happening “below the surface” of behaviors and meltdowns. We discuss underlying factors such as social-emotional skills, and self-awareness.

    We address those trigger points by providing self-regulation tools, coping strategies, and mindfulness activities. We help kids and families master an improved quality of life so that completion of daily tasks and everyday occupations are easier and more functional.

    This social emotional learning worksheet does just that!

    emotions worksheet

    To help kids better understand various emotions, they can use this tool to draw and color faces to match the various types of emotions.

    They can then write in the given spaces to complete the sentence and identify a time when they felt that emotion.

    This is a great tool for helping kids understand emotions, and foster emotional development by offering coping tools or regulation strategies if needed. It’s a great way to help kids talk about emotions and know that it’s ok to feel all of those emotions, and that everyone else does, too.

    More emotions activities

    This free social emotional learning worksheet makes a nice addition to play-based emotions activities. In the resource, Exploring Books Through Play, you’ll do just that.

    This digital, E-BOOK is an amazing resource for anyone helping kids learn about acceptance, empathy, compassion, and friendship. In Exploring Books through Play, you’ll find therapist-approved resources, activities, crafts, projects, and play ideas based on 10 popular children’s books. Each book covered contains activities designed to develop fine motor skills, gross motor skills, sensory exploration, handwriting, and more. Help kids understand complex topics of social/emotional skills, empathy, compassion, and friendship through books and hands-on play.

    Click here to get your copy of Exploring Books Through Play.

    social emotional activities for kids

    I hope this social emotional worksheet is helpful to you and those you serve!

    To get your printable copy of this FREE SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING WORKSHEETs, enter your email into the form below:

    Get this social emotional learning worksheet!

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      Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

      Friendship Gross Motor Activity

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      friendship activity for preschool

      This ice cream gross motor activity is also a fun friendship gross motor activity too! In fact, movement games are a great way to build friendship and establish relationships, especially when team building and problem solving are involved.  Here, you’ll find an ice cream bean bag activity that challenges not only core strength, movement patterns, and motor planning (with an ice cream theme!) but also is a fun friendship activity for a group.

      The friendship gross motor activities here are bean bag games that would fit nicely with a movement gross motor activity because it’s just another way to improve core strengthening.

      The friendship theme is a bonus, making it a fun friendship activity for preschoolers and younger kids developing from parallel play to associative play to cooperative play.

      Use this ice cream therapy activity to add a movement break in the classroom, a creative ice breaker game for a group of new friends, and a playful ways to promote friendship with movement.  

      And even better, bean bag games improve core strengthening through whole body movement and these friendship themed games are one that will build memories.

      Friendship theme gross motor bean bag activity for kids in preschool, classroom.

      Affiliate links are included in this post.

      Gross Motor Core Strengthening ActivitY

      Building core strength is important for so many reasons: attention, focus, and positioning are just a few reasons to strengthen the core.  Read more about core strengthening and attention here. 

      Use bean bag games in Friendship Activities

      There are several reasons why bean bag games are a great addition to any kids’ day. These are the underlying reasons why you’ll see bean bag activities in therapy. But, also bean bag games can be beneficial as a gross motor friendship activity, too.

      • Bean bag games are a great movement and core strengthening activity.
      • They are an easy way to add a movement brain break to classroom activities. 
      • Movement games foster friendship and invite conversation in groups like classrooms, youth groups, play dates, and birthday parties.
      • Bean bag games offer repetition with heavy work, adding proprioception for a calming and organizing activity.
      • Bean bag games offer an opportunity for gross motor visual motor integration skill work, which is necessary for developing the skills needed for handwriting, reading, and learning.
      • Bean bag games allow a child to build core muscle strength.
      • Group games with bean bags build problem solving and group interactions.

      For our gross motor friendship activity, we attempted to build core muscle strength through repetition of core muscle building, using a gross motor ice cream theme.  

      This would be a good activity for a group setting, however, you could definitely do this activity individually as well.    

      We used the ice cream bean bags that we made last summer.  Read more about how to make the ice cream cone bean bags here.    

      While any bean bags would work for these friendship movement activities, we used what we had in the house, and they went perfectly with our book for this week, Mo Willems’ Should I Share My Ice Cream.  (Tell me, are your kids as Elephant and Piggy obsessed as mine are???)  

      Gross Motor Friendship Ideas

      Line up your group of kids.  We played a few different games and they all involved FUN!

      1. Bean Bag Slide– Kids can line up side by side, facing in the same direction. Start with all of the bean bags to the left side of one child.  The first child should reach down and grab one bean bag. They can then slide the bean bag on the floor between their legs, placing it behind them.  The child to their right should lean down and grab the bean bag between their legs.  They can then place the bean bag on the floor in front of their feet.  The child to their right can grab the bean bag and continue it down the line of kids.
      1. Bean Bag Over Head– Kids can sit on the ground one in front of the other.  The bean bags should begin in a pile in front of the first child.  That child can pick up one bean bag and place it over their head to pass it to the next child behind them. That child can grab the bean bag and pass it over their head to the child behind them. Continue down the line.

      2. Bean Bag Side to Side– Kids can sit in a line behind one another. The kids should pass bean bags down the line by twisting at the core to rotate their trunk. Continue the bean bag pass down the line.

      3. Bean Bag Toss– Kids should line up in a line by standing up a few feet from one another.  One child should pass one bean bag to the next student by tossing a low toss to the next child.  Try to keep the bean bag close to the ground but not touching the ground. Continue to pass bean bags down the line. 

      4. Bean Bag Foot Pass– Kids can lie on their backs in a line.  The fist child should use only their feet to pick up one bean bag and pass it to the next child. That child should grab the bean bag using only their feet.  Continue all of the bean bags down the line.

      Each of these games can be done in a line or in a circle.  

      Friendship activities for preschoolers including a Gross motor bean bag game for a group with a friendship theme.

      friendship activity for preschoolers

      By playing a group game, children can build friendships, foster relationships, problem solve, resolve conflicts, learn from others, and establish many other powerful developmental benefits of group activities.  

      For this friendship gross motor activity, we first, read one of our favorite Elephant and Piggy books, Should I Share My Ice Cream.  We then used our ice cream bean bags to play a friendship game together.  As we passed the ice cream bean bags, we shared ways to be helpful.  

      Sharing with a friend is just one way to be nice to a friend.  Being helpful at school, making a nice card, or inviting a friend to play are other ways to be nice to a friend. As we passed the bean bags to one another, saying these qualities of a friend allowed us to slow down in the bean bag passing game.  

      This way, we could build muscle strength with slow movements.   

      While we used the ice cream bean bags, you could read the book and  use any bean bags in your gross motor friendship activity!   What are your favorite bean bag games?  

      Want more friendship activities for preschoolers?

      In the resource, Exploring Books Through Play, you’ll do just that.

      This digital, E-BOOK is an amazing resource for anyone helping kids learn about acceptance, empathy, compassion, and friendship. In Exploring Books through Play, you’ll find therapist-approved resources, activities, crafts, projects, and play ideas based on 10 popular children’s books. Each book covered contains activities designed to develop fine motor skills, gross motor skills, sensory exploration, handwriting, and more. Help kids understand complex topics of social/emotional skills, empathy, compassion, and friendship through books and hands-on play.

      Click here to get your copy of Exploring Books Through Play.

      Friendship themed bean bag activity for gross motor core strengthening exercise

      Check out more Friendship themed activities based on Should I Share My Ice Cream? Simple Friendship Concentration Game from Toddler Approved Spelling Names Ice-Cream Centre from Still Playing School Kind Words Sensory lesson from Preschool Powol Packets Listening Games with Elephant and Piggie from Inspiration Laboratories Making Pumpkin Ice-Cream with Friends from The Educators’ Spin On It Cupcake Cones from Kori at Home Friendship Ice-Cream is a Fun Way to Practice Sharing from Mama Smiles How to Make a Catapult from JDaniel4’s Mom Paper Tube Friendship Bracelets from Clare’s Little Tots How to Make Colour Mixing Ice-Cream from Peakle Pie How to make Happy Faces in a Sand Tray from Big Owl, Little Owl, Whitty Hoots Share the Ice-Cream Fine Motor Game from Views from a Step Stool Pass the Ice-Cream Sharing Activity for Preschoolers from Sunny Day Family Friendship Ice Cream Throw from Adventures of Adam Build 2D and 3D Ice Cream Cones with Friends from Kara Carrero Piggie and Elephant Shape Sorting Activity from Mosswood Connection

      Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.

       
       
       

      Anxiety and Sensory-Based Coping Skills for Kids

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      Sensory based coping skills is an effective way to help kids deal with feelings of anxiety.  There is a reason that most of us deal with an uncomfortable situation by cracking our knuckles or cope with anger by punching a pillow.  Sensory based anxiety coping strategies can help kids deal with stress and feelings of anxiety for long term success and social emotional development.


      When a difficult situation comes up in school or other social situation, kids can cope with the stress in that very moment.  Teaching these skills to kids requires a little preparation and frequent practice but can be a huge help when kids are feeling completely overwhelmed by feelings of anxiety.


      Kids should understand that their body may react in a certain way when they are in a difficult salutation.  Feelings of stress and anxiety can be confusing to kids and can even make them feel more overwhelmed and out of control.


      Anxiety in kids can arise for many reasons, including sensory-based causes, difficulty organizing oneself, social reasons, behavioral reasons, or nervousness in new or scary situations.  Kids should know that their body can give them clues  about stress in these tricky situations and that they can understand and use those clues to feel more in control.


      Feelings of anxiety might begin during or before anticipated situations that cause the child to feel overwhelmed, nervous, frustrated, or angry.  Then, when they start feeling those clues, they start to feel even more overwhelmed.


      What a scary thing for a child to feel!

      Anxiety and sensory based coping skills that will help kids overcome their feelings of stress and anxiety

      Anxiety and Sensory Based Coping Skills to Help Kids



      Imagine the signs that a child might feel when experiencing anxiety:

      • Sweaty palms
      • Fast breathing
      • Upset stomach
      • Sweating 
      • Feeling hot
      • Negative thoughts
      • Feeling angry
      • Wanting to run away
      • Feeling helpless
      • Feeling that the situation is dumb
      • Tense muscles
      • Wanting to wiggle or move
      • Feeling itchy
      • Sore muscles
      • Trouble focusing
      It is important to remember that every child is different and how important it is to talk with your child to discuss his or her personal stress signals.  Talk about when they might feel these signals and what happens in the environment that might lead up to their feelings of stress and anxiety.
       
      Once you and your kiddo have the clues of anxiety figured out, it is helpful to come up with strategies to cope with anxiety.  


      This post contains affiliate links.

      Try these sensory activities and tools to help kids with anxiety.


      Sensory Based Coping Skills for Kids

      Try these sensory-based anxiety coping strategies for helping kids deal with stress:


      Proprioception-based Coping Strategies

      Knee tapping
      Chew gum
      Muscle squeezes-Tense the whole body like a rock and hold the position for 10 seconds. Then release with “no muscles”.  Repeat this technique three times.
      hand clenches- Squeeze the hands into fists and hold them for 10 seconds.  Release and repeat three times.
      Stress ball- (Try this homemade stress ball OR a store bought one)
      Punch a pillow


      Vestibular-based Coping Strategies

      Run in place
      Head bend down with deep breaths
       


      Oral-based Sensory Coping Strategies

      Suck a lollipop
      Blow up a balloon
      Deep belly breaths and blowing out through “duck lips”
      Hum low and “under your breath”
       


      Olfactory-based Coping Strategies

      Smell calming scents
       


      Tactile-based Coping Strategies

      Sensory touch bar for desks.  Sticky back velcro is a great cost-effective version of this strategy.
       

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      Vision-based Coping Strategies

       
       

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      Anxiety and sensory based coping skills that will help kids overcome their feelings of stress and anxiety



      Teaching kids to use these sensory based coping strategies to deal with anxiety or stress requires thoughtful discussion with your child and practice to prepare for unknown situations.  Try role playing situations where overwhelming feelings have previously presented themselves.  Talk about what led up to those feelings and clues and how the child can use different sensory based strategies to beat the anxiety next time. 

      Anxiety and sensory based coping skills that will help kids overcome their feelings of stress and anxiety
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