Name of teaching material
Words that make each other happy: “Well-done cards” self-made product
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Teaching material
Teaching material
| Target | Children who are enrolled, or take special support services in resource rooms, in the following: preschools; nursery schools; regular classes of elementary school or junior high school; classes for the emotionally disturbed; special support classes; and special needs schools (kindergarten, elementary, lower secondary, and upper secondary divisions) |
|---|---|
| Disability category | mentally challenged |
| Teaching units / Applicable scenes | special activities instruction for living skills pre-school education teaching and learning tools, auxiliary aids |
| Specific purposes |
To enable children to: (1) focus on each other’s strong points (2) increase their self-esteem and awareness of others’ emotions (3) replace negative words with positive words (cognitive reframing). (4) improve relationships in their classroom groups. |
| Considerations for disability characteristics | Many children with developmental impairment who are enrolled in regular classes have low self-esteem and poor awareness of other’s emotions. This is because they have been subjected to many negative words in their accumulated experiences of failure. To break this vicious circle, it is important for classroom groups to focus on each other’s strong points. This teaching material aims to improve the relationships in classroom groups by purposely making children focus on each other’s strong points. |
| Expected effects and results | If children evaluate each other at the end-of-the-day meeting, they tend to focus on each other’s weak points. The teacher had the children tell the class anything they felt happy about being told by their friends, and the teacher wrote it down and posted it. These processes filled the classroom with words that mad each child happy, increasing their self-esteem and their awareness of other’s emotions. |
| How to use |
(1) First, gain an understanding of the true picture of the children in the class (what kinds of negative words the children use, and in what situations). (2) During the end-of-the-day meeting, listen to the children’s words and pick up on anything done or said by the children’s friends that have made them feel happy. (3) Write down the children’s words in the form of a leaf on a piece of paper. The combined use of well-done cards can improve the effectiveness of this approach. (4) Explain in a simple way to the children why the words and behaviors are worth praising, and praise them with a smile. (5) When a child has spoken or behaved inappropriately, leave them alone in the classroom and provide counseling individually. (6) Report episodes in class at a parent meeting. Ask parents to report episodes that occur at home. |
| Related teaching materials and information |
A thermometer of feelings, cognitive reframing, relaxation [Reference] A message to teachers who bother over how to teach children with developmental disabilities: Yuimaaru (Let’s connect with each other!) (in Japanese): Hiroshi Anbe (2010), Meijitosho Shuppan Corporation True feelings of children with developmental delay and deviation: Hiroshi Anbe (2013), Gakuji Shuppan Co., Ltd |
| Useful for other students |
- Informant Special Needs Education School for the Mentally Challenged, University of Tsukuba
- Keywords Cognitive reframing, others’ emotions, self-esteem
- Created 2017-03-02 14:33:15
- Updated 2023-12-26 15:05:36