cognitive behavioral therapy - Social Skills Activities for Children with Autism

Here is a great activity for individuals or groups of kids to introduce or expand on how to cope with upsetting feelings. It uses the metaphor of paper money that is first minted, and then shredded if it is defective or worn out. To do the Mint New Thoughts activity you need to print out lots of the special play money (the link for the download play money is found below) and a paper shredder (or you can just tear up the old money).

Print out the OLD THOUGHT money and NEW THOUGHT money in quantities large enough for each participant to have about six to use. To download and print the money, click here:

Mint-New-Thoughts-Activity-download Download

This kit is available in Polish

Spanish: Acuñar nuevos pensamientos

For free access to an excellent Boom Card version of this resource, click HERE.

To introduce this activity:

Try using language like this: “Did you ever wonder where money comes from, and what happens to it when it is no good anymore? Money comes from a huge printing factory called a “mint.” All of our money comes from these places called mints.

“Often, when the money is not printed right, they have to destroy it. They use something like the paper shredders you see in an office. Also, other money gets worn out, and they have to shred that money too.

“To replace the destroyed money, the mint prints brand new money.

Your mind is something like a mint that makes money, except your mind makes thoughts instead of dollars. Hundreds of thoughts, thousands of thoughts, every day. Most of the thoughts are good and helpful to you. But some kinds of thoughts aren’t good because they just make you upset too much. When you get these thoughts, they are like bad or worn-out money that needs to be destroyed. Then, you need new and better thoughts to make you feel good and calm instead of upset.”

Now, show the kids how to fill out the OLD THOUGHT money. If you have not already introduced the kids to “poison” and “antidote” thoughts, you will want to do this slowly and carefully. There are lots of other CBT resources available on the website.
Have the kids fill out the NEW THOUGHT money now. Provide plenty of extra blank money for them to practice. Tell them that they can use more than one NEW THOUGHT to replace the OLD THOUGHT.
Have the kids run the old money through a paper shredder. If you have the opportunity to work outside and actually burn them, like on a charcoal grill, this really gets kids’ attention.
If you like, you can laminate the new money now, and with the kids’ permission, display it.

To access a summary of all the CBT materials on this website, click HERE.

Derived from a method described in Cognitive Therapy with Children and Adolescents, ed. By Reinecke, Dattilio and Freeman, 2006, Guilford Press.

Joel Shaul, LCSW

Your comments on these resources are most welcome, and often helpful. Click HERE to send an email.

Help the upset person activity

Years after I designed the Help the Upset Person Activity, I designed this similar – but much better game . You should probably check out The Fix The Problem Game instead. Click on the picture below to see it.

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This is an engaging and entertaining cognitive-behavioral teaching strategy on the topic of emotional regulation.
Here is how to do it:

Here is how to present the activity to your client/student, small group, or class:

“When people are worried, or sad, or disappointed, or mad, they can help themselves to feel better. They do this by thinking certain things, doing certain things, and saying certain things. Here is a game where you get to be the one to help an upset person to calm down.

I am going to pretend to be different upset kids. Your job is to tell me what to THINK, what to DO, and what to SAY to help solve my problem.

If you give me good, helpful advice on what to think, do and say, then I will hold the picture of the upset person lower and lower. If you give me advice that makes my problem worse, or doesn’t help at all, I will raise the picture higher and higher.

If the picture ends up this high [way above your head], then you have lost the game.

If the picture gets all the way down by my knees, then you have done a great job and you have won the game.”
Here are situations you can use for your enactments of the upset person role plays:

Young person who is upset because children on the playground suddenly decide to change the kickball rules to allow five bases instead of three

Young person who is upset because a substitute teacher is not following the normal routine and is not listening to the young person’s advice

Young person is upset because the bakery delivered a defective cake to his birthday party—a Pikachu cake that is blue instead of yellow. (Or, pick a local sports team’s colors and the bakery messes up the colors )

Young person is sad and hopeless because, although he is doing his best to fit in and socialize with peers, he has been unsuccessful

Young person who is on the bus on the way to the first day of a summer day camp, feeling apprehensive about new activities and the prospect of social failure

Joel Shaul, LCSW