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AJ is going to Occupational Therapy for Sensory Processing Disorder and it’s been life-changing for all of us. Today, I want to tell you about an amazing website called Fun and Function, Where Special Needs is Cool (Affordable too!) and a great feelings game called Guess How I Feel. Both have helped us in our journey with SPD and would be equally great for all kids and very helpful to kids on the autism spectrum.
The owner, Aviva Weiss, is a pediatric occupational therapist and mom with five children. She is a God-send for parents like me who are just learning about how to best help their children.
To get me started, Aviva sent me the Guess How I Feel? game – it’s not just for special needs, it’s for every child. But, for AJ, it’s important. Because, she doesn’t really “get” the emotional piece, especially with others.
Last week, she told her good friend that she didn’t like her new glasses, that she looked better without them! I’m still trying to convince her that absolute honesty can hurt people’s feelings. Feelings are something she really needs to work on!
Guess How I Feel? includes 16 magnetic facial expressions, 50 photographic situation cards, 1 guess bag with 20 color bands, 4 pads and pencils, 1 minute timer, a dry erase magnetic mirror and 4 dry erase markers.
Each player gets a pad and pencil. The first player picks a situation card and shows it.Then, he or she draws his or her reaction on the magnetic mirror using the markers and or magentic facial expressions. The other players guess what the reaction will be using their pad of paper.
The first player shares the emotion ad the others show what they guessed. The players who guessed correctly earn a prize from the guess bag — which my kids LOVED.
We played this game (both girls and I) for quite some time — as you can see from my own pad of paper above. This is a keeper for us – and one which we’ll play again and again. It’s always nice to find a fun game that teaches something, too!
Want to win a game? Aviva from Fun and Function is generously offering an Imagination Soup reader a game of their own. Comment below by April 2, 2011 if you want to win this game. Winner will be chosen at random.
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Melissa Taylor is a mom and educator from Denver who is passionate about playful learning. Thanks for visiting the site!
50 Comments
this is a great idea….sometimes kids have a hard time expressing themselves and are even discouraged from expressing emotions.
What a great learning game!
This looks like a great game for any kid. I think it would be a great way for families to talk about feelings, emotions, and how to handle different situations or talk about scenarios where the kids may have felt unsure of how to respond. What a great idea!
Looks like a great game!
What a great idea to make feelings fun! Love it =)
thanks for all the great ideas. Our kids deserve the best!
Awesome game…with great learning opportunities. Thank you.
Great game!!
What a great game. My two ASD kids have such a tough time with naming how someone else feels. This looks like a fun way to teach them.
awesome learning game, since my son cant express his emotions this would help out ALOT
thanks
This is wonderful. Would love to have this game for my girls!!!!
I’ll bet my little guy would really benefit from this game. I’m tossing my name in for the giveaway. Thanks for the chance!
Looks like a game children would enjoy and really benefit from. I would love to win it.
This would be great for my developmentally delayed preschoolers. I love Fun and Function. One of my favorite products is the weighted compression vest. I’ve never seen a compression vest with weight from any other company. How clever of Fun and Function to think of it! Even better, they are the lowest price I have seen anywhere, around $50. What a bargain!
I love this idea and can see how helpful it would be for anyone to play!
Enter me, please! Looks like a fun game!
I’ve been looking at this game for a month now. I think it could benefit my little guy greatly. Thanks for the chance to win.
This would be something my son with autism could do with his neurotypical sister. Great idea.
I would love to get this game. Both my kids need it!
Being transparent is not valued in the work place. What a challenge for parents to help kids and themselves know how and when to get in touch with the real feelings.–So important.
I would love to win this game for my 5 year old. We are working on naming feelings at home, this would be a great addition to what we are doing! Thanks for the opportunity to win this!
This game would be a wonderful tool for use in language therapy sessions for children with pragmatic language difficulties, including kids on the autism spectrum. The ideas of the magnetic mirror, the nice photos, and the currently quite popular color bands all are assets!
What a great game for my classroom to use for a lesson on feelings!
This sounds like a great way to teach what emotions are and how we express them! I would love to win this for my little guy! Thanks for the opportunity!
My little girl has autism and this would help her greatly!
I have 2 granddaughters with autism. One has a lot of sensory issues. we would LOVE to have the game!
I’m always on the lookout for great family games. This one sounds like a winner. Thanks for this great giveaway!
Oh! How I could use this game! As a Kindergarten teacher, I am sometimes the first one to start the process to get children and parents help dealing with learning/social differences. I need all the tools I can get to give families the positive things they need now.
This sounds like a wonderful game. This would be useful to my son and his whole class!!
I could use this with kids I work with that have autism. I saw it about 5 years ago and thought it was a great game!
Sounds like a great game. I think things like this are wonderful for helping children learn to “use their words” when they have difficult emotions.
Excellent resource to use with children on the spectrum!
[...] Guess How I Feel Game and Giveaway [...]
I would love to have this game. It would be great for a number of students on my caseload.
Would love to have this for my son who has Autism. His understanding of emotions is beginning to emerge and may help with his emotional regulation.
I never heard about this game – how wonderful – I like the multi-sensory activities. I can really see using this with my students!
[...] Guess How I Feel Game and Giveaway [...]
I would love to try this game with my class.
looks like a great game for my daughter!
Anything that helps kids deal with feelings is a WINNER in my book! This looks fabulous and I would use this to help some of the many kids I see in therapy! Fab, fab, fab!
Wendy @Kidlutions
I’d love to have a resource to help my autistic students connect with emotions. Great giveaway.
I think this is a great idea for children with autism and developmental delays. I could not imagine the fun my students would have utilizing this amazing game. Great job!!
I work with young children with emotional disturbance who have difficulty both processing and reading emotions. This game looks like a fun and engaging opportunity to build the critical skills of identifying emotions in others and reflecting on personal emotions.
learning emotions and taking turns sounds like a great combo. Would love to win this.
This game looks like fun – I’d love to use it in my class!
[...] Guess How I Feel Game and Giveaway [...]
We would LOVE this game! I know my family could benefit.
Looks like fun. Thanks for the giveaway!
One of my students on the autism spectrum was told by another student that his breath smelled. This game would be great to help teach the students how what people say can hurt each others feelings.
Thank you so much for that website – it looks awesome! I love this little game; I think it would be great for my kiddos.