Emotions

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Anyone got any tips/ideas on teaching emotions to children with autism/aspergers? Do you remember when you first began to understand emotions? What has been useful? I'm thinking more about emotions in oneself rather than in others.

Check out Mister Rogers, he didn't specialize in kids with autism but he was a real master at this subject. The kids may have emotions even though they don't exhibit them.

Emotions do not need to be taught. We have emotions.

For our purposes let's call them "Emoticons" and they look like giant mechs.

I know you have emotions - what I really meant was how to teach children with autism to share emotions and perhaps explain how they are feeling and what is upsetting them. I have a student in mind who gets upset and no-one knows why. We were just hoping if he was more aware of his emotions and how to label them, this might help him to explain them and then people around him may be able to help.

sorry if that wasn't clear (typical NT speech I guess!!)

I wish I'd've had someone to help me with emotional stuff when I was young. For a long time I had this wall. I couldn't share emotional stuff. I didn't know how. And, I think, I didn't know how to safely be vulnerable. I didn't know how to connect with others.

Thinking about what helped...

Knowledge. Learning things about how to deal with emotions. Things that I just hadn't picked up, but once I had the idea, I could use. Learning them as as facts.

Being able to write about my feelings and my inner life. In my journal first. As far as sharing, for me it was, first, internet forums. Then, an internet friendship. Then a friend I knew in person, but via email. And, eventually, in person, with another friend.

And, also, example. That same friend who was the last friend in the above paragraph. He's a singer/songwriter/musician, and his openness about talking about his own feelings and thoughts and emotional struggles during his shows, between songs, plus, what he expresses within his songs. It's been a good example for me.

Knowing the words and being able to put them into words wasn't an issue for me. It was the sharing that was. I did (and still do) like to read fiction, and I'm thinking it's possible that helped there. Come to think of it, music too. Songs that express feelings, and tell stories. I was and am quite into music and probably learned a lot from songs.