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Tuning in to their emotions is crucial for your little niece’s and nephew’s success with family members, friends, classmates, and in everyday interactions. These great tools can help them learn to express their emotions and understand what others are feeling.

For Beginners
 
1. ABA Flash Cards & Games—Emotions
Identifying and understanding emotions are crucial life skills. This collection includes 50 concrete, colorful images of the 10 most basic emotions. Five examples of each feeling help teach basic emotions in a consistent way with repetitive practice.
 
2. Go Go Games
Kids learn to notice differences and to focus on details. Three different games show a set of objects and ask kids to match two that look the same—an essential skill for kids with autism. Kids practice noticing colors, patterns, and sizes of objects to make a match.
 
3. Look In My Eyes 1 Restaurant
Making good eye contact is essential for developing friendships and other social skills. Kids can practice, as faces with different expressions flash on the screen. The trick is for kids to hold eye contact long enough to see a flashing number appear. Shy kids in particular can benefit.
 
4. Model Me Going Places 2
Kids, who have emotional challenges, often need help predicting what will happen in new or unfamiliar places. Here, they watch a photo slideshow of other kids in places like the grocery store, school, and the dentist’s office. Kids can review expected behavior and feel more at ease in new places.
 
5. Peek-a-Zoo by Duck Duck Moose
Kids with social and emotional challenges need ways to learn about what others are feeling. By studying the facial expressions of cartoon animal characters, kids can learn to identify emotions and social cues. It’s simple to use and a fun way to learn early social skills.
 
6. That’s How I Feel
Simple but powerful, this app helps kids express their feelings. Kids match their feelings to the pictures that are shown and tap images to hear statements of emotion. Kids can grow more self-aware and learn that there’s a wide range of emotions.
 
7. Touch and Learn—Emotions
Reading body language and facial expressions is an important part of early social learning. By looking at photos and figuring out which person is expressing an emotion, kids get a chance to practice in a safe way. And it’s easy to adjust settings for each kid’s needs.

Use apps like Peek-a-Zoo, That’s How I Feel, and Touch and Feel—Emotions with your niece or nephew. Practice making faces that show emotions together, and take pictures for your own version of showing how you feel.

Photo: David Castillo Dominici
Published: February 26, 2013