Learners with ASD often struggle with understanding their emotions, thoughts, behaviors, as well as how they are all connected. Cognitive behavioral interventions can be used to address foundational skills such as social skills, communication, behavior, cognition, coping, and emotional well-being/mental health conditions (e.g., anxiety, depression, anger). CBI programs use a combination of approaches to increase a learner’s awareness of self and others. These specific types of intervention programs provide psycho-education and assist a learner in restructuring the thought process, providing affective education, and teaching cognitive and behavioral skills to assist in basic decision-making, problem solving and coping. Some of the techniques used during CBI include:
Affect recognition
Monitoring automatic thoughts and developing alternative thoughts and behaviors
Development of coping strategies
Graded exposure
This brief provides suggestions for adapting CBT for individuals on the spectrum.
A 23 minute video to assist in guiding providers to understand how to support student's coping in the home environment.
This brief six minute video will introduce students to the concept that we all have thoughts that complete for our time. Some thoughts can make us happy or excited and some thoughts can make us angry, sad, upset or worried, for example. We can learn to use other thoughts to help us feel better.
This 8 1/2 minute video will help students to understand how to use antidote thoughts to combat poison thoughts by thinking about what others may be thinking in challenging situations. Staff can use this video to start and facilitate conversations in small group activities.
Learn about five types of poison thinking that lead to upsetting thoughts.
This 12 minute video will help students to recognize black and white thinking, how it can make them feel badly and how they can challenge these poison thoughts.
This 12 minute video will help students to recognize when they are predicting without proof, why it makes them feel badly, and how to challenge these poison thoughts.
This 11 minute video will help students to identify when they are searching for the bad and ignoring the good, why it makes them feel badly and how to challenge these poison thoughts.
This 12 minute video will help students to identify when they are blaming themselves, others or situations, why it makes them feel badly and how to challenge this type of poison thoughts.
This 13 1/2 minute video can help students to identify rigid thinking, why it makes them feel badly and how to challenge this type of poison thinking.
This video briefly describes how to use simple, free worksheets to help children to sort out upsetting thoughts and feelings. Although they were designed to help kids with high functioning ASD, they are fine for "typical" kids as well. See the printables section to download a copy.
Learn how to recognize unhealthy automtaic thoughts and replace with healthy adapative thinking.
A brief, four minute video to introduce the power our thoughts have on our feelings.
This is the first in a series of songs called Music Box Therapy exploring the use of music to help children acquire coping skills.
Challenging Negative Thoughts Worksheet
With this tool, you can assist students to learn how to identify and manage their own behaviors and emotions. At each level the student will identify what each rating may look like, feel like, and possible solutions to control them. Directions on the tools use are included.
This is a great tool to review with students during neutral times so providers can refer back to it as a prompt during challenging emotional moments.
A visual tool to assist students in using calming strategies to deal with their dysregulated emotions.
Specifically designed for the classroom environment.
All the documents you need in order to implement this intervention.