Corona-Cards-For-Coping-and-Family-Social-Skills-Free-Download. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FREE DOWNLOADDownload
Emotion Word Printables, fun activity to promote learning about feelings
TO DOWNLOAD THIS RESOURCE, CLICK ON THE RED LINK HERE: Emotion Word Cards Activity Download
This same resource in German: 45 Gefühlswortkarten
by Joel Shaul, LCSW
Your comments on these resources are most welcome, and often helpful. Click HERE to send an email.
Here are some other free resources to help children with autism to learn about feelings and emotions.
Paper Fortune Tellers for Feelings
Green Zone Picture Card Activity – Free Social Skills Game for Children on the Autism Spectrum
Children on the autism spectrum often struggle to discern the interests of other people and to take these interests into account in conversation. This social skills game employs a picture-based strategy works well in a variety of ages and reading levels. I would then encourage you to go on to fully explore this fun, visual method in my illustrated children’s book, The Green Zone Conversation Book, published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
To download the activity, click on the red link below.
I wish you success in your social skills work with children on the autism spectrum.
Joel Shaul, LCSW
Green Zone Picture Card Activity Download
German language translation of this resource
Polish language translation of this resource – Karty obrazkowe
Spanish language translation of this resource – Tarjetas de la Zona Verde para practicar la conversación
Hebrew language translation of this resource
Above are two pages from The Green Zone Conversation Book
In another post, I have directions for making and using this fun variation, the Green Zone Mat.
Your comments on these resources are most welcome, and often helpful. Click HERE to send an email.
Free Paper Fortune Tellers: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Games for Counseling and Classroom
To download the PDF files for these three paper fortune tellers, click on the RED link right below here:
CBT Paper Fortune Tellers for Anxiety & Other Issues
Helping children to work on upsetting emotions using cognitive behavioral therapy game activities
Many young people have persistent problems with anxiety, sadness, anger and other upsetting emotions. To maintain engagement in counseling and psycho-education, we need to provide novel approaches and introduce some levity whenever possible.
To check out a dozen other paper fortune tellers, on diverse social skills themes, please click here.
For a summary and links to all the free CBT materials on my website, please click here.
Some suggestions for introducing these Fortune Tellers:
1. Introduce some basics concerning the connection between automatic negative thoughts and negative emotions. I suggest you do this by viewing , with children, this very short video I made:
2. Working in pairs, and taking turns, person number one says, “Spell your name.” For each letter, the child holding the Fortune Teller manipulates the device back and forth.
3. Person number two is then shown the two options appearing on the inner triangles. Person one says, “Pick which one you want.” You can see photos of this farther down on this page.
4. Person one opens up the innermost petals, where four options appear. He tells person two, “Pick A, B, C or D.” Person one reads the option selected. If the option read is a negative thought, person two has to tell how to deal with such thoughts. If the option selected is a positive thought, person two must describe a time when he needed to use such a thought to solve a problem.
I really enjoyed creating these paper devices. Don’t be afraid to try folding them. Here is an illustrated guide to folding them.
My best wishes for your work with children,
Joel Shaul, LCSW
Your comments on these resources are most welcome, and often helpful. Click HERE to send an email.
Christmas social skills paper fortune teller for kids with ASD (and other kids as well)
Giving compliments is a very important skill during the holidays.
Here is a something quick to make to help children with autism (and other children) to practice.
Some commentary, photos and links to other resources on giving compliments are given below.
Click here: Christmas Social Skills Paper Fortune Teller
[ for another holiday-themed social skills activity, CLICK HERE ]
Children on the autism spectrum are often deficient in the skill of giving compliments. They tend to not be aware of the obligation and necessity of offering compliments to build and maintain good will in relationships.
During holidays in which family and friends give and receive gifts, and adults host meals, parties and other celebratory events, part of the expectation is that those on the receiving end will praise that which is provided for them to play with, eat and enjoy. It is useful for children with ASD to practice the social skill of giving compliments in advance of such occasions.
I have put a lot of free downloads on this website to promote giving compliments. Here are a few to check out:
Compliment maker with pictures, words and phrases
Compliment tag; how to play it
How to use the Christmas Social Skills Paper Fortune Teller
Elsewhere on the website, I have picture guides to show you how to fold paper fortune tellers and use them in your work. I also have free downloads of a dozen other ones.
Your comments on these resources are most welcome, and often helpful. Click HERE to send an email.
I hope you enjoy using these things. Happy holidays.
Joel Shaul, LCSW
Paper Fortune Tellers – social skills games for children with ASD’s (and other children too)
This is the main page for my social skills paper fortune tellers. Scroll down to view photos.
Click on these links below for explanations and free downloads of 17 paper fortune tellers.
Quick Picture Guide for Folding Paper Fortune Tellers
Quick Picture Guide for Using These Paper Fortune Tellers in Social / Emotional Skills Work
*For a video demo on folding and using these things by Carla Butorac, SLP, click HERE.
Paper fortune tellers can be useful therapy / teaching tools, especially for young people with ASD.
*The turn-taking that naturally occurs when two people use a paper fortune teller promotes the reciprocal conversations we are trying to promote.
*Each paper fortune teller emphasizes an important skill area in our social/emotional teaching.
*Paper fortune tellers are engaging and fun.
I enjoyed creating these. I hope you find them useful.
Joel Shaul
Paper Fortune Teller for Playing & Hanging Out Skills
Himmel und Hölle um spielen und einander kennenzulernen
Adivinador de papel para ayudar a los niños a aprender hacer preguntas
Paper fortune teller for asking questions
Paper Fortune Teller for Asking “How are you?” questions
Paper Fortune Teller for Topics of Weather & Weekends
Paper Fortune Teller for Asking Opinions
Paper Fortune Teller for Christmas Social Skills
Paper Fortune Teller for Talking about Covid-19
*Don’t miss these other free social skills games, worksheets and therapy resources for children on the autism spectrum:
Free social skills games & activities, communication / conversation skills for kids with ASD
Free social skills games & activities, social interaction skills for kids with ASD
Free social skills games & activities, emotional regulation skills for kids with ASD
Your comments on these resources are most welcome, and often helpful. Click HERE to send an email.
Emotion Cards – social skills games and activities to help teach emotional awareness to children with ASD
Children with ASD and Emotional Awareness
Children on the autism spectrum may experience a range of challenges with respect to emotions. They may find it difficult to accurately recognize and name their own emotions. They may find it confusing to imagine the emotions of other people. They often find it difficult to understand how the words and actions of one person may affect the emotions of another person.
Elsewhere on this website, I have provided a number of free games and activities to help children with ASD to understand emotions and deal with upsetting feelings (follow link HERE to find these).
Download the Emotion Cards PDF by clicking on the red link below:
Emotion Card Activity – PDF
French translation:
Jeu de Cartes à Emotions
Polish translation:
Emocje–karty do gry
Description of the cards and how to use them:
There are two decks of cards. The first deck, Emotion Word Cards, features 44 different words describing positive and negative emotions. The second deck, comprised of 48 Question Cards, has a wide variety of questions, tasks and role play assignments.
The most basic game to play with the cards is to place each deck face down, and direct the player to draw one card from each deck. The combination of cards drawn determines what task the player is directed to perform. For example, if the player draws the Emotion Card, “WORRIED,” and the Question Card, “Tell about a time you felt like this,” then the player must tell about a time he felt worried.
Here are a few variations on using the cards.
Several of the Question Cards direct the player to make their face look like the feeling on the Emotion Card they drew.
In the example right above, the player is directed to make up a story featuring three Emotion Cards he drew. There are other related Question Cards which direct the player to cooperate with other players in telling a sequential story involving a series of Emotion Cards (see example below).
Below are several more typical combinations of cards that can come up. Look them over and see whether these might be useful for your students or clients.
How to make the cards:
You will need to print them on card stock, or on paper which you will then laminate.
Joel Shaul, LCSW
Don’t miss these other free games, worksheets and activities to help children with autism learn about emotions and feelings.
Paper Fortune Tellers for Feelings
20 More Free Emotional Skills Activities for Children
Your comments on these resources are most welcome, and often helpful. Click HERE to send an email.
Your comments on these resources are most welcome, and often helpful. Click HERE to send an email.
Correcting others and tattling too much: Social skills activities to teach kids with autism who have these problems
Social skills games and learning activities for tattling and correcting
I created these materials ten years ago and just finished a re-design of the whole kit.
Young people on the autism spectrum can come across as rigid and bossy at times to their peers. Children with ASD can misinterpret complex social situations and express themselves too openly, without considering the broader social consequences.
Figuring out when to “tattle” or correct someone is very hard. I designed the 48 question cards to include a lot of challenging questions that don’t have clear-cut answers.
When you use the cards, feel free to go through the deck and select the ones that seem best for the young people you are helping, based on their age, level of comprehension and particular issues they are dealing with.
Children like to hold the cards and have an actual “deck” to play with, but this social skills activity also really works well in the screen display version (which is the version I most often use myself, for groups and teletherapy).
I hope these materials are useful for you in your work.
Joel Shaul
Your comments on these resources are most welcome, and often helpful. Click HERE to send an email.
Flexibility in kids with ASD – Card activity to teach this social skill to children on the autism spectrum
Children with autism spectrum disorders often experience challenges relate to rigidity. They can find if difficult dealing with changes and trying things new ways. Children on the autism spectrum can find it hard to imagine the points of view of other people and they often don’t make accurate predictions about how others will react to their own strong opinions.
The free resource featured here is one of many I offer to help raise awareness regarding rigidity and flexibility in social situations.
To print out the 36 cards and the two panels, click here:
Flexibility Cards, Activity to explore rigidity
Also available in POLISH language version
*But in case you prefer to “show” this activity rather than print it and cut it out, click below instead:
Flexibility Cards PowerPoint Version
When you print out the cards, I suggest you use cardstock or else paper which you will then laminate.
The two panels describing Rigidity and Flexibility can be used separately as a wall display or teaching aid, if you don’t intend to use the cards.
Suggestions on how to introduce the topic of Rigidity:
1. I suggest that you select your terminology carefully. Many kids with ASD learning the social skill of flexibility might not have the capacity to learn and use words such as “rigidity,” flexibility,” “cooperate,” “compromise,” etc. Far more children will be able to grasp the meaning of simpler words like “stubborn,” “bossy,” “get along with,” “let others have their way,” etc.
2. Try using language like this when starting on this topic:
“Some things around us are hard. What are some objects in this room that are hard? Other things are soft. Name some soft objects in this room. Now let’s talk about how things that we cannot see can also be hard or soft. Like our thoughts. Here are some words for thoughts that are HARD: Bossy, stubborn, [rigid], unchanging. Here are some words for thoughts that are SOFT: Flexible, agree, willing to change, willing to try, [cooperate]. Sometimes it is okay or good to to be stubborn and bossy. Like if someone is trying to get you to do something really bad, it’s great to be really stubborn and say no. Sometimes it feels really good to do something the same way over and over to make you feel safe and calm. But very often, it is not good to be rigid. Being rigid can keep you from doing good, new things. Being rigid can annoy other people. Being rigid can keep you from having friends.”
3. I have a children’s YouTube video on Rigidity – This might be a good introduction to this topic.
How to use the cards:
The cards are designed to help kids with autism to learn more about the social skills of flexibility associated with accepting other people’s thoughts and ideas and dealing with unexpected and unwanted changes. You can shuffle the cards randomly or else “stack the deck” so that cards most fitting for the child(ren) present will be drawn. Remove from the deck any cards you don’t consider relevant.
My first suggestion is that you do lots of role plays when you are doing this social skills game activity. For example, you, the adult, can pretend to be the rigid person depicted in the card. You can do the role play with another adult or with the children who are present. My second suggestion is that you strongly reinforce children when they show awareness of their own rigid traits. You can try passing out tokens or keeping score in some way to acknowledge learning about flexibility and admitting to rigid habits.
Below the downloads, you will find some links to other downloadable social skills activities on the website that particularly focus autism social skills having to do with rigidity.
I hope you enjoy this social skills activity.
Joel Shaul, LCSW
There are dozens of other free social skills games, worksheets and card activities you can download for children on the autism spectrum. Don’t miss them!
Free social skills games & activities, communication / conversation skills for kids with ASD
Free social skills games & activities, social interaction skills for kids with ASD
Free social skills games & activities, emotional regulation skills for kids with ASD
Your comments on these resources are most welcome, and often helpful. Click HERE to send an email.
The Conversation Box: Conversation training tool for children with high functioning autism and Asperger’s
Children on the autism spectrum usually don’t easily grasp the many functions of conversation. Here is a good activity to help them. The various functions of two-way conversation are clearly explained and word examples are provided. It is loosely based on concepts outlined in Relationship Development Intervention (RDI). ( This activity requires some reading ability. Please see links below to conversation learning activities that rely less on reading.)
How to create the Conversation Box activity:
Follow the directions for PDF download below.
Put the cards in a box. It’s nice to decorate it.
How to do the Conversation Box activity with kids on the autism spectrum:
Use words something like this:
“We are going to play the Conversation Box activity. It’s a fun activity to help us to practice all the good ways to talk back and forth with other people. Inside the box are cards showing all the good ways that people talk back and forth with each other.”
Now, show them the cards, as well as the eight prompts providing word examples for each card category.
“We will take turns reaching inside the box to randomly draw a card. When you pick a card, you have to have a back-and-forth conversation with another person here. You can look at these signs [show them the eight word prompts] to help you know what to say.”
I hope you enjoy this social skills activity.
Joel Shaul, LCSW
CLICK HERE: Conversation Box, & directions
This activity is also available in a PowerPoint version (in case you wish to show / project it instead of printing it):
Conversation Box PowerPoint
En Español: La caja de diálogos: Un método para ayudar a los niños con autismo a conversar
For dozens more free downloads for conversation and social communication,
Your comments on these resources are most welcome, and often helpful. Click HERE to send an email.