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Strategies for Teaching Based on Autism Research

February 2025 Newsletter | Emotions and Autism

HomeFebruary 2025 Newsletter | Emotions and Autism

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child identifying emotions

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Emotions and Autism  

Emotions function in many ways in our lives: They motivate us to act, they help us communicate in social contexts, they influence our thoughts and decisions, and they help us connect body sensations to feelings. Autism’s effects on processing and expressing emotions varies from person to person: Some autistic individuals will benefit from support and intervention to develop coping strategies for emotional regulation and skills to foster meaningful social relationships. Whether your goal is to support students with identifying and expressing emotions, balancing sensory impacts while managing emotions, or learning new emotional regulation skills, there are many evidence-based practices to help students in their development.

assistive technology

Identifying and Expressing Emotions

Identifying emotions is a critical first step to understanding and monitoring them. Understanding and interpreting emotions can be difficult, though, which can lead to challenges for some autistic learners as they learn to respond appropriately in social situations.

  • Explore both verbal and nonverbal expressions of emotions, using social scripts and visual supports when possible.

  • Provide clear and direct feedback and reinforcement as students practice identifying and expressing emotions. Try using this set of situation cards (English | Español) to structure role-play.

  • Consider this fun monster-themed discussion story (English | Español) from Themes First! to explore emotions and facial expressions with primary students. After reading the story, use the response cards to lead a conversation about feelings.

technology for student engagement

Managing the Impact of Sensory Sensitivities and Change

Consider environmental contributors and individual sensory sensitivities and how they impact emotional dysregulation. These impacts can make it difficult for individuals to manage and express their emotions effectively.

  • Identify environmental triggers and practice coping skills. For example, the lunchroom at school is full of potential sensory challenges (e.g., smells, food tastes and textures, lights, loud noises, and crowded spaces), so some students may benefit from a plan to access a sensory-friendly space during transition times to practice regulating emotions.

  • Pay attention to the ways behavior communicates needs: Any kind of change in behavior can indicate that a person is having a hard time managing their emotions.

  • Collaborate with caregivers and school staff to discuss effective and individualized strategies for students to generalize coping in a variety of contexts, like in the school cafeteria, at the playground, and at home.

  • For secondary students, dealing with stress and managing responses in context are essential skills to develop. This Links vocational discussion story (“Dealing With Stress”: English | Español) has questions embedded to prompt students as you define stress and explore coping strategies.

Developing Emotional Regulation Skills

Some individuals with autism may require support and intervention to develop coping strategies for emotional regulation and skills to enhance social interactions and relationships.

  • Provide visual supports and cues to reinforce emotion skills and strategies for controlling emotions. These SOLER worksheets are a great set to introduce and revisit as needed:
  • Use evidence-based strategies to help support emotional regulation and skill development:
    • Visual supports
    • Role-play
    • Modeling
    • Prompting
    • Reinforcement

technology for student engagement

Social Learning and Emotional Regulation (SOLER)

STAR’s comprehensive SOLER curriculum is packed with lessons to support emotion recognition and skill development. Users can access content for identifying and expressing emotions, understanding emotions in context, controlling emotions, and more, including generalization and home support tools to supplement the classroom materials!

SOLER’s visual supports are ready to help your students learn about emotions!

SOLER Resources

Stay tuned for more from SOLER in 2025!

Interested in learning about SOLER? Let us know!

Stay tuned this year for exciting announcements about STAR’s social and emotional materials. We are working on new evidence-based resources for supporting you and your students!