Examples of questions at Blank Level 4 – Problem solving

Blank Level 4 – Reasoning and problem-solving emotions

Your child is learning to problem solve about their emotions (Blank Level 4).  Your child is not yet able to independently retell a story and problem solve and answer ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions about incidents involving emotional dysregulation.

It is helpful to reduce the language levels being taught and used for children with emotional regulation needs because while they may have language to describe their experiences and get their needs met in their everyday lives,

• they may have a specific gap in their language to describe and manage their emotions such as words for emotions, words to request coping strategies
• it is more difficult to process and use language when dysregulated

1. Understand the behaviour

Behaviour can often be a sign that there is a problem, for example, your child running out of the room or flapping their hands may be a sign that they are feeling overwhelmed, anxious or not sure what to do, and lashing out or hitting someone may be your child reacting to unexpected change or behaviours around them. It is important to know the specific non-verbal signs your child shows and what this behaviour means for your child.

An emotional regulation profile and a positive behaviour support plan is helpful to identify patterns and signs that your child might be showing.

It would be helpful if you consider:

• Non-verbal signs of an emotion such as sad, happy, angry, worried, scared
• Strategies and tools that help each emotion and these may be different for each emotion
• Patterns and events which cause an emotion

Zones of Regulation is a useful framework for this.

2. Provide predictability and regulating strategies consistently to maintain your child’s emotional wellbeing

To avoid dysregulation in their environment and what is being asked of them. This will reduce their anxiety and support their independence in the classroom. Examples include:

• Visual timetables and now and next boards
• Transition supports such as object of reference, symbol support and a countdown timer
• Regular sensory breaks
• Model and provide visual support for activities and what is expected of them so that your child can see what they are expected to do
  • Task instruction lists such as step by step instructions of how to do a task
  • Avoid blank pieces of paper, instead show your child what is expected by providing visual scaffolds such as checklists for them to fill in or tick off

3. Adults to coach emotions and behaviour with Blank Level 4 strategies in the moment and during a debrief when the incident is finished and child is calm

Children can apply and learn the words best when they hear them in the moment as they will be feeling the emotion making it very real. Thinking about a time when you felt a specific emotion or how a character feels is very abstract, but can be included in one to one work when your child is more competent at naming and talking about emotions in themselves.

One to one or in a small group

• Use comic strip conversations to unpick what your child, characters in pictures or stories were feeling, saying and thinking
• Use picture cards or books or Zones of Regulation videos on YouTube such as ‘inside out’ film clips with the above strategies to teach the emotion words and describe what you can see
• Where appropriate, use toys such Lego or Playmobile to act out scenarios so your child can see what happens. Discuss how the various characters are feeling and what they could say in the situations.
• Use Black Sheep Press packs – Speech Bubbles, Talkabout School, Talkabout Home, Talkabout Friends, ‘Why/Because’
• Use Language for Behaviour and Emotions toolkit and scenarios such as ‘Talking about feelings’, What’s that feeling called’, ‘Dealing with feelings’

Examples of questions at language level D

Your child’s understanding is currently developing at Language Level D (a level used in the Language for Behaviour and Emotions framework), which means that they can apply language to things in their environment and are embedding their ability to retell stories and events. They need support to learn to understand and problem solve from multiple perspectives, for example, infer, reason, and answer ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions about events and social scenarios.

Use these strategies across the curriculum and the day, for example, unstructured social times, incident management, restorative justice. Do not be hindered by lack of symbol software, you can use a pen and paper as standard practice to teach your child how to break down ideas with words and pictures.

It can be very difficult to apply skills learned in groups into their real lives especially when the scenarios are emotionally charged, so your child or young person will need ongoing support with strategies described below to allow them to develop and embed skills across their lifetime.

What strategies can be used to support understanding at this level?

• Support your child or young person to understand why it is important to solve people problems:
  • It can be difficult to get on with other people sometimes. This can be people they really like as well as people they don’t like as much. This means we can all at times get into arguments or fall out
  • Other people might not understand what we are thinking, feeling or saying. We might not understand what they are thinking, feeling or saying
  • Sometimes people might upset us when they didn’t mean to, when this happens, it can be upsetting or make us angry
  • It is better to work out a problem even if we don’t like the person so that it doesn’t result in an argument or fight at home, school or work
• Encourage your child or young person to listen to other perspectives and ideas even if they do not agree with them
• Simplify questions:
  • Avoid complex and broad questions like ‘What happened?’, ‘What were you thinking?’, ‘Why did …?’, ‘What would happen if…?’, ‘If you noticed … what could you have done?’, ‘How would X feel if X did…?’ All of these questions rely on complex grammar, recall, narrative and sequencing, social prediction, social problem solving as well as reasoning and justification skills.
  • Break down complex topics and events into simpler components, for example, ‘Who?’ ‘What?’ ‘Where?’ ‘When?’ ‘What did they say?’ ‘What did they do?’ ‘How did they feel?’
  • State what you know before asking a more specific question, for example, ‘X did …. and he knew … would happen.’ ‘Do you know why…did…?’, ‘… was hurt by… This will have made some things hard for him, what would be hard?’)
  • Relate to everyday life and world knowledge outside of the current situation, for example, ‘When you feel … how do you act?’, ‘When someone is angry, what do you see?’
  • Suggest options, for example, ‘Could it be because…’, ‘… had just said … which could have made you feel…’)
  • Eliminate ideas based on world knowledge, for example, ‘He shut the front door behind’ him – car door, front door, bedroom door?
  • Recap on ideas using simple language, for example, ‘Now you know that … gets you in trouble, what will you do if … happens again?’
• Pre-teaching vocabulary is crucial as your child will have difficulty understanding and problem solving if they do not have a good understanding of the words and concepts involved. Teach the following
  • Emotion vocabulary
  • Behaviour vocabulary, words such as consequence
• Develop social monitoring skills by modelling emotion words and clues to the group when you sense them, for example, if someone looks confused, or frustrated and actions that could be taken in the moment
• Vocabulary boards and dictionaries need images
• Use Comic strip conversations
• Mind map ideas
• Problem solving frames

What should be avoided?

• Complex questions without visual support or when emotionally dysregulated, for example,
  • ‘Why’ and ‘How’ questions, such as, ‘Why did you do that?’, ‘How did that happen?’
  • Questions that involve explanation, justification and reasoning

What are some language level D questions?

• Identify and explain the actions and steps that could be taken by the group, for example, ‘What could we do if the tower falls down?’
• Identify and explain tools that could be used by the group, for example, ‘What could we use?’
• Justify a decision with evidence, for example, ‘Why should we…?’ ‘Why would it …?’
• Justify the obstacles to an action and predict why something won’t work, for example,  ‘Why can’t we…?’
• Listen to another perspective and compare with their own
• Assess whether the other perspective has changed their view and how
• Explain the steps that could be taken to resolve their differences
• Explain and justify the best solution for everyone

What activities can be used for support?

• Lego therapy
• Talk about school, home, friends, secondary – Black Sheep Press
• Language for Behaviour and Emotion toolkits, for example, scenarios, problem solving frame, finding clues and explaining your thinking, vocabulary dictionary
• Animation shorts on YouTube, for example, Pixar short films