Lynch School of Education

Abstracts from Teaching Exceptional Children (TEC)

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TITLE:
What Can You Learn from a Bombaloo? Using Picture Books to Help Young Students with Special Needs Regulate their Emotions

VOLUME 39 ISSUE 3

AUTHOR(S):
Michael F. Shaughnessy

DOCUMENT TYPE: Article

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ABSTRACT:
Emotions are important to young children because they focus their attention, energize their bodies, and organize their thinking in ways that are adaptive to their needs. Emotions serve an adaptive function but to be useful they must be modulated, or regulated. Emotional regulation is the ability to understand emotions what they are, how to modulate them, and how to deploy them effectively. Regulation of emotions is important for children because when emotions are managed children are able to focus their attention, learn in new situations, and form lasting relationships. Unfortunately, developing emotional-regulation can be difficult for children who have special needs. The purpose of this article is to explain emotional regulation, why it is important and how teachers can use picture books and skills training to help young (K- grade 3) students with disabilities develop this important skill. Picture books categorized by emotion are provided along emotional cues.