ELSA SUPPORT - Emotions Intervention - Mental Health, emotional intelligence/literacy, PSHE

This intervention is written for a group of six children and is led by an ELSA or teaching assistant. It covers recognising, labelling and expressing the six basic emotions. It is written for children from 4-7 but could also be useful for children with autism or special needs. The sessions last for approximately 40 to 60 minutes.

The intervention covers the six basic emotions of happy, sad, angry, scared, surprised and disgusted.

A pre and post assessment is filled in by the class teacher at the beginning and end of the intervention. The assessments we use are enclosed with this pack. These assessments cover other areas of emotional literacy and social skills but are a good indicator of any other problems that the child may have. Please choose which ones you want to use. You may have other generic assessments that you use but it is important to try and track progress however you choose to do it. Often when a child takes part in this type of intervention other skills are developed too. For example social skills, sharing, co-operating, teamwork and self-esteem to name a few. It is a good idea to keep a book, like a learning journey to stick the children’s work in. This is a brilliant way of sharing with parents and teachers things that the children are doing with you.

All the paper resources are included in this pack. You will need a large sheet of paper for week 6 and a cuddly teddy and hoops for week 2.

Learning objectives are as follows:

I can recognise and name the six basic emotions
I can understand the reasons why I might feel different emotions
I can give examples of when I felt happy and sad
I can give examples of when I felt angry and scared
I can give examples of when I felt surprised and disgusted
I can tell you about some of the physical sensations I get when I feel an emotion