Janine Halloran – Anxiety, ADHD and Anger in the Classroom: 60 Activity-Based Coping Skills to Effectively Manage “Big Feelings”

Outline

Coping Skills Overview

• The autonomic nervous system & coping skills
• 4 types of coping skills: calming, physical, distraction and processing
• Coping skills checklist to identify current skills and strengths
• Preventative interventions

Skills and Strategies: Interactive Exercises
Deep Breathing – Beyond “Taking a Deep Breath”

• Props – pinwheels, bubbles, stuffed animals, Hoberman sphere
• Words – to encourage deep breaths, “smell the soup, cool down the soup”, etc.
• Shapes – star breathing, lazy 8 breathing, square breathing, triangle breathing
• Your Body – your hand, whole body movement

Coping Skills for Anxiety/Stress

• Mindfulness Practice – one mindful minute, spiderman mindfulness, audio and visual mindfulness scripts, Grounding Techniques – 54321 grounding, alphabet grounding
• Identifying and taming anxiety – take-home worksheets to help identify anxiety, including a thermometer for anxiety worksheet, “sources of stress” worksheet

Coping Skills for ADHD

• Plan movement and sensory breaks
• The importance of play, hobbies, and having fun: calming jars, fidgets, sand trays, zen gardens
• Coping skills for stress
• Manage stressful times – the importance of play, hobbies, and having fun
• Sensory Ideas – calming jars, fidgets, sand trays, zen gardens

Coping Skills for Anger/Frustration

• Small physical movement activities to manage frustration – squeezing play dough, scribble drawing, bubble wrap, ripping paper
• Big physical movement activities to manage anger – jumping jacks, running, wall push ups, obstacle courses, yoga
• Processing anger – comic strip processing, what I can control vs. what I can’t control worksheet

Practical Implementation Ideas for the Classroom or Office

• Make a coping skills toolkit for your room – fidgets, coping skills cue cards and other visuals to help, include distraction coping skills like word searches, hidden pictures. etc
• Creating a calm down spot/calm down room – identify a good spot, create an area that is peaceful and relaxing, include the coping skills toolkit
• Practice your own coping skills – mindfulness and self-care worksheet