Amy Laurent

Supporting children, parents & educators

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The Daily Brain

Free Visual Support: The Daily Brain (PDF)

It’s difficult to rank any given day on a simple descriptive scale of good to bad or on a numerical scale of 1 to 5. However, many times that is just what our students are asked to do. These scales fail to capture the complexity of a day and the variability that is inevitable across multiple hours. The Daily Brain is a tool that is designed to help conversational students be thoughtful and reflect on how they experience and navigate their day according to several dimensions, using sliding scales. It can be used at the end of a single day or at multiple points during that day. The video briefly discusses possible ways to introduce and use The Daily Brain.

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Fidgets in the Classroom

Free Visual Support: Fidgets in the Classroom (PDF)

Fidgets are a tool for self-regulation. Just like many other regulatory tools, students need to be taught how to use them. Fidgets in the Classroom provides practical information for school staff seeking to help students use fidgets effectively in the classroom to support active engagement and learning. This support can be used for direct teaching about fidgets and can also be used as a visual reminder in the classroom. The video briefly discusses the use of fidgets as learning tools.

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Class Ready? Check in!

Free Visual Support: Class Ready? Check in! (PDF)

Part of helping students to learn how to independently use meta-cognitive strategies for self-regulation is supporting their ability to identify their own emotional/arousal state. Scheduling a consistent time to “check in” with how one is feeling provides the structure and repetition needed to start to build the capacity. This tool was created for a student to use at the beginning of each class block. It is provided here in .pdf format for printing, but can also be made into a lock screen photo on an iPad or other device for quick access. Once the student identifies how “ready” they are to learn they are encouraged to consult the “what to do” menu in the appropriate box and to choose a regulating strategy. The video tutorial talks briefly about the design of the support and ways to individualize it.