So How Do You Feel About That? – “I don’t know.”

It’s incredibly difficult for children to talk about their feelings. This is especially the case for children with Autism. I was trying to help a young autistic boy express how he felt when he discovered that his actions had resulted in the death of a family pet. This had been a life-changing incident, directly resulting in years of residential placement away from his family.

When I asked him about his feelings in regards to this incident, I was not really surprised to hear “I don’t know.” My attempts at clarification were almost completely ineffective.  I suggested that creating a Feelings Map could be helpful.

Much to my astonishment, this boy, who never revealed much in the way of strong or complex emotions, rapidly and decisively created a detailed Feelings Map illustrating a dozen different feelings associated with that incident. Furthermore, he was subsequently able to use words to show that he understood the meaning of each emotion and he explained the relative placement of the emotions on the target map!