Taking CHARGE of My Rainbow of Emotions

Taking CHARGE of My Rainbow of Emotions is an excellent tool to teach children and adolescents how to understand their positive and negative emotions. The book begins with an easy-to-use assessment that helps the learner and adult coach understand the learner's knowledge of emotions, emotional regulation, and strategies. The answers to the assessment questions point to where to start in the curriculum. As a result, there is no need for learners to relearn what they know. Similarly, the assessment ensures that learners don't bypass important knowledge. The book's greatest asset, however, is the CHARGE tool belt, which helps learners identify and select strategies that match their emotional needs. The strategies are lifelong they can be used by children and adults alike. This book can be used by professionals in a classroom setting, a social skills group, or one-on-one. And it is equally applicable to home and school!

--Brenda Smith Myles, PhD, consultant with the Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence (OCALI) and the Ziggurat Group

This comprehensive framework for addressing the crucial skill of emotional regulation has broad application and can be used with children of all ages with varying levels of need across a wide range of settings. Concepts are cleverly presented in ways that are naturally appealing and easy to understand. The Rainbow of Emotions, for example, provides a useful way for children to recognize and categorize their emotional states while the CHARGE Tool Belt provides them with a very useful way to understand and remember coping skills. The book incorporates the fundamental principles of learning by being structured, clear, visually supported, multi-sensory, and highly individualized. For me as a psychologist working with children who have developmental, sensory, and emotional concerns, this book will get a lot of use and is a very welcome addition to my own tool belt.

--Christopher Lynch, PhD, director of Pediatric Behavioral Medicine, Goryeb Children s Hospital; author of Totally Chill: My Complete Guide to Staying Cool A Stress Management Workbook for Kids With Social, Emotional, or Sensory Sensitivities

As a practitioner working within different educational settings, I find that the content and workbook materials can be used both to inform professional learning and to develop individual behavior intervention plans linked to social skills development and emotional self-regulation. The comprehensive level of detail and strategies provided and the three-tiered structure of emotional management allow for different stages of development, as well as different student needs, abilities, and learning styles. An excellent resource!

--Colleen Hackett, registered psychologist, lecturer, Notre Dame University, WA, Australia; author of Building Inclusive Schools: Resource Package for Administrators & Teachers and School Curriculum and Standards