Overview

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Developing emotional skills with the Westmead Feelings Program

A pair of 15-month intervention programs teaching autistic children about emotional understanding and social awareness, in close collaboration with parents, teachers and facilitators. Available for two different ability levels.

Not just clinic-based, the Westmead Feelings Program develops parents’ and teachers’ emotion coaching skills, supporting children to understand emotions, solve problems and ultimately manage their feelings in everyday settings.

Understanding and recognising emotions
through a wide range of activities and videos

Expressing intensities of emotions
with the Feelings Strength Bar

Promoting emotional skills at home and school
by upskilling parents and teachers to emotion coaches

Find out how the Westmead Feelings Program uses research-based learning characteristics and teaching strategies to benefit children with autism, parents and teachers alike.

Request your comprehensive program overview today.

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Supporting children, parents and teachers alike

Children

Parents

Teachers

Module 1

School Term 1

Module 2

School Term 2

Module 3

School Term 3

Booster Session

6 mths later

6 months later

Program structure

Module 1

School Term 1

Understanding emotions

Module 1 for children

Facilitator introduces children to four primary emotions – happy, sad, worried and angry – and explains that there are different intensities of feelings. Children learn this concept with the help of the Feelings Strength Bar.

How to use the Feelings Strength Bar to rate intensities of feelings
How to recognise happy, sad, worried and angry facial features
How different people can have different feelings in the same situation

Module 1 for parents and teachers

Facilitator works closely with parents and teachers to ensure the best possible outcome for each child. Parents and teachers are introduced to their role as ‘emotion coaches’, and learn about how to support children to talk about their emotions.

What is the Westmead Feelings Program?
The emotional and social challenges for children on the autism spectrum
How children with on the autism spectrum communicate
How to be an emotion coach
How to use the Feelings Strength Bar
How to use visual cueing
How to use the communications book

Module 2

School Term 2

Problem solving and perspective taking

Module 2 for children

Children learn about feelings in themselves and in others, to foster a greater understanding of the causes of and influences on people’s emotional experiences and behaviour. They also learn specifically tailored cognitive-behavioural therapy strategies.

How to solve problems, using structured visual tools
Reading emotional signs in faces, bodies and voices
Perspective taking, or how different people can have different feelings in the same situation

Module 2 for parents and teachers

Parents and teachers continue to fine-tune their emotion-coaching skills, and learn about problem solving and perspective taking.

How to solve problems, using structured visual tools
Reading emotional signs in faces, bodies and voices
Perspective taking, or how different people can have different feelings in the same situation
Putting problem solving and perspective taking together

Module 3

School Term 3

Managing emotions

Module 3 for children

Children learn a range of strategies for dealing with difficult or unpleasant emotions, to feel more in control and accepting of their emotions, enabling them to react more appropriately and in more socially positive ways.

Management of not-so-good feelings
How to use the Feelings Control Kit strategies
Recap of previously learned skills and strategies

Module 3 for parents and teachers

Parents and teachers learn ways by which they can support children's emotion management skills.

Troubleshooting skills from Modules 1 and 2
How to use the Feelings Control Kit strategies
Effective use and promotion of emotion regulation skills

Booster Session

6 months later

Booster Session

The Boosters comprise one session each for children, teachers and parents approximately six months after completion of Module 3.

Revision of all Westmead Feelings Program skills
Troubleshooting and skill refinement based on parent and teacher feedback

Understanding emotions

Module 1 for children

How to use the Feelings Strength Bar to rate intensities of feelings
How to recognise happy, sad, worried and angry facial features
How different people can have different feelings in the same situation

Module 1 for parents and teachers

What is the Westmead Feelings Program?
The emotional and social challenges for children on the autism spectrum
How children with on the autism spectrum communicate
How to be an emotion coach
How to use the Feelings Strength Bar
How to use visual cueing
How to use the communications book

Problem solving and perspective taking

Module 2 for children

How to solve problems, using structured visual tools
Reading emotional signs in faces, bodies and voices
Perspective taking, or how different people can have different feelings in the same situation

Module 2 for parents and teachers

Parents and teachers continue to fine-tune their emotion-coaching skills, and learn about problem solving and perspective taking.

How to solve problems, using structured visual tools
Reading emotional signs in faces, bodies and voices
Perspective taking, or how different people can have different feelings in the same situation
Putting problem solving and perspective taking together

Managing emotions

Module 3 for children

Management of not-so-good feelings
How to use the Feelings Control Kit strategies
Recap of previously learned skills and strategies

Module 3 for parents and teachers

Parents and teachers learn ways by which they can support children's emotion management skills.

Troubleshooting skills from Modules 1 and 2
How to use the Feelings Control Kit strategies
Effective use and promotion of emotion regulation skills

Booster Session

The Boosters comprise one session each for children, teachers and parents approximately six months after completion of Module 3.

Revision of all Westmead Feelings Program skills
Troubleshooting and skill refinement based on parent and teacher feedback

10 years of research and clinical trials

The Westmead Feelings Program has been proven to significantly improve emotional competence in autistic children, both with and without mild intellectual disability.

Read the research

Westmead Feelings Program 1

Emotion-based learning for children with autism spectrum disorder and mild intellectual disability.

Westmead Feelings Program 1 is aimed at verbal children, who may or may not read, can draw simple pictures or write a few key words and can pay attention for at least a few minutes at a time.

Facilitator Certification Course

Facilitated online training
Login details to secure online platform
Access to online facilitator
ACER Certificate
Accreditation of 20 hours of professional development for registered psychologists and educational professionals

Resource Kit

Facilitator's Resource Kit (details)
Facilitator's manuals (details)
Facilitator's digital resources (details)
Child materials (details)
Parent materials (details)
Teacher materials (details)

Westmead Feelings Program 2

Emotion-based learning for children with autism spectrum disorder and no accompanying intellectual impairment.

Westmead Feelings Program 2 is aimed at children who have fluent speech, and who are able to read and write.

Facilitator Certification Course

Facilitated online training
Login details to secure online platform
Access to online facilitator
ACER Certificate
Accreditation of 20 hours of professional development for registered psychologists and educational professionals

Resource Kit

Facilitator's Resource Kit (details)
Facilitator's manuals (details)
Facilitator's digital resources (details)
Child materials (details)
Parent materials (details)
Teacher materials (details)

Purchase of WFP Resource Kits is restricted to psychologists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, allied health professionals, special educators, school counsellors and teachers. It is recommended that practitioners complete WFP training to become accredited facilitators before running the program.

The program works

The Westmead Feelings Program is really useful for children, parents, teachers, psychologists and all other professionals working with children with autism spectrum disorder. It provides structure, helping parents to practice skills and the child to learn in a concrete way, as children with autism spectrum disorder need protocols or structure to understand emotions. The program provides an easily understandable common language around emotions that are colour and number coded for children with autism spectrum disorder. The program deals with the basic four emotions which helps these children in their day-to-day social functioning without making emotions complicated or difficult to learn. The use of videos and visuals help learning and relevant everyday examples of social-emotional situations helps the children to understand and relate better. Finally the Westmead Feelings Program is evidence-based, hence it works to support children with Autism to have an independent, fulfilling and socially integrate life through the development of their social and emotional skills.

Deepa Singhal RANZCP RACP DCH, Child Psychiatrist and Paediatrician, Honorary Lecturer at the Australian National University, March 2017

The Westmead Feelings Program is making an important contribution to the field of autism research and intervention; it is a program that can be adopted by schools, teachers, and families to better support ‘well-being’ curricular strategies in the education of students on the spectrum. Further, the Westmead Feelings Program is helping to address the gap in the literature in relation to students on the spectrum who may also have an intellectual impairment.

I highly recommend the Westmead Feelings Program to anyone who seeks to improve the emotional competence, mental health and well-being of school-age students on the autism spectrum.

Dr Trevor Clark, National Director, Aspect Research & Senior Education Consultant, Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect), May 2017

The Westmead Feeling Program provides information that directly addresses the difficulties teachers and parents experience on a daily basis with students on the spectrum. Every parent involved in the initial information session identified with the concepts presented and provided examples of how it applied to their child. This provided an excellent opportunity for parents to share their experiences. The session was clearly enjoyed by all and we look forward to the first student sessions.

As an added benefit, the program is an all-in-one pre-prepared initiative to which all of the resources and information are at your fingertips. The utilisation of different learning methods and media to teach the concepts also enhance the prospects of the program further. Through video, role-plays, games and modeling the program is fun, unique, relevant and useful. I have no hesitation in recommending this training to any professional wanting to work within an excellent framework to assist students with autism spectrum disorder.

Daniel J Wendt, MAPS, MPsych (Clinical Psychology), PGDipPsych, BTeach/BA, Principal Psychologist, Oracle Psychology