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by Laura Riffel (Author), Ed D. Jessica Eggleston (Author)
Often, we witness adults telling children to "use their words" when the child is in the midst of a meltdown. If we have not taught the child what words to use, how can they use their words? Their meltdown is signaling that they have no words to tell us. This book is a very simple step-by-step process for how to teach students/children a script to convey their emotions after we revise the environment to set them up for success, teach the replacement behaviors for self-regulation, and reframe our own response so we are feeding the replacement behavior and not the target behavior. We will show readers how to move the student/child from the amygdala (limbic system) to the prefrontal cortex where the synapses are firing in the "thinking part" of the brain. The majority of the book is a resource for readers and comes with a link to downloadable copies of the worksheets for ease of duplication. This strategy has been field-tested over the years in our work at a day clinic, with schools dealing with children who were born to opioid-addicted mothers, in a state-wide program for behaviors that impeded learning, and even with our own children and grandchildren. This book will show you how to build an amygdala recalibration station in your classroom or home, teach you how to instruct children in self-regulation, and help you reframe your own response so you are feeding the calm rather than feeding the meltdown. There are social narratives and coloring pages for the younger students, and pages of resources you can use with all ages of students.
