Emotion Regulation Theory and Interventions for School-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ABSTRACT Emotion Regulation Theory and Interventions for School-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Kara Dalena As seen in previous literature, children with Autism Spectrum Disorder often struggle with regulating their emotions and prosocial coping strategies (Beeger et al., 2008; Beidas et al., 2010; Domitrovich et al., 2007; Erbas et al., 2013; Gould et al., 2011…Yeo & Choi, 2011). The inability to regulate emotions and apply prosocial coping strategies often result in problem behaviors in the classroom and among peers. Understanding and examining how students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) perceive their emotions as well as others’ emotions can help us understand what intervention is necessary to improve their emotion regulation. In particular, teaching these students about theory of mind, emotion differentiation, and perspective may help them improve their emotion regulation (Gould et al., 2011; Hammond et al., 2009). Teaching these children prosocial coping strategies may ultimately decrease problem behaviors in the classroom (Jahromi et al, 2013). This research study aimed to explore how children with ASD perceive their emotions, as well as others’ emotions. Additionally, this research focused on children’s emotion regulation and provided them to practice prosocial coping strategies. In collaboration with Sunshine School, the school staff, an intervention centered around emotional awareness was put in to place. Four students between the ages of 8 and 10 years old, with Autism Spectrum Disorder participated in this intervention. These participants were interviewed in order to understand how these children perceive their emotions and then completed the emotion regulation intervention created by the researcher. Each participant also completed a Video-Self Model (VSM) to implement prosocial coping strategies. The classroom teachers were asked to complete a rating scale in order to measure social skills and problem behaviors. This qualitative analysis used grounded theory to explore themes related to emotion regulation as well as emerging themes from the interviews, drawings, observation and field notes. Findings were consistent with previous research; children with ASD struggle with emotion regulation and lack the possession of prosocial coping strategies (Jahromi et al., 2012; Jahromi et al., 2013; Landy & Bradley, 2014). More importantly, these children have difficulty differentiating between emotions, understanding the perspective of others, and often struggle with coping with emotional conflicts. Findings showed a positive change in each participant’s emotion regulation after participating in the intervention. Additionally, children showed a positive change in understanding prosocial coping strategies