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My first item of interest is the Calm-a-Llama workbook. The workbook is based on mindfulness
practices and teaches students how to better cope with stress and emotionally
self-regulate. The reason why I like
this workbook so much, is because it guides students and helps them develop
coping skills that are effective for them.
The book first starts out with a ther-llama-ter, which is a rating scale
that kids can use to help them identify what they are feeling. The colors on the ther-llama-ter go from
green to indicate calm to red to indicate out of control. ON the side the student is supposed to write
coping skills that they will use at every level to help them from going to the
red zone. I think that this is a
solution focused, strengths based approach because the student picks out what
they are going to do at every zone and during this lesson, students are also
taught how to identify when they are escalating. The workbook also has a weekly tracker where
students can self-report how they felt during the week which can be useful if
this is incorporated into a BIP or an IEP.
Additionally, the self-report part of the work book can be used to track
data at different parts of the day and in different settings as well. The
workbook also teaches students how to use mindfulness based deep breathing to
help calm themselves down when they are started to feel like they are
escalating. The workbook also addresses
grounding techniques and helps the student through the grounding process.
Another nice part of the workbook is that it comes with a mini-social story
that students can use to prompt the use of their workbook. The workbook is meant to be used with a
younger population, but I have used parts of the book with my high schoolers
and they have loved it. Mindfulness
based interventions are also evidence based and this workbook can be used with
students that are struggling with anxiety or incorporated into the social
emotional curriculum.
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