AFFECT IDENTIFICATION

CHILD PRESENTATION

OVERLY CONSTRICTED CHILD

quiet

withdrawn

overly compliant

non-social

non-expressive

doesn't connect

may have periodic outbursts to minor stressors

EXTERNALIZING CHILD

presenting a front

externalizes emotions to events and people

heightened sense of justice

argumentative

oppositional

mistrust

LABILE CHILD

changeable/inconsistent presentation

influenced by environmental triggers

influenced by others

exaggeration of emotional response

disconnection

difficulty accessing emotional experience once trigger is gone

DISCUSSION GROUP ACTIVITY

STAGES

Early development: start with basic skills of observing and naming emotional experiences.

Intermediate development: build skills to connect current experiences with past or future events, and with others.

Adavanced development: build reflective skills and abstract connections.

Normalize the experiences.

KEEP IN MIND

Build language to express "energy" and "arousal" levels.

People may describe and label emotions differently.

Combine affenct identification work with modulation techniques.

People experience combinations of emotions simultaneously.

STRATEGIES

Build vocabulary for emotional experiences in self and others.

Build connection between emotional experiences and their causes.

• Precipitating factors
• Physiological changes
• Behaviors
• Coping Skills

Help the child understand the context of the experience.

SELF-REGULATION

DIFFICULTY READING THE AFFECT OF OTHER PEOPLE:

The capacity to effectively manage experience on many levels: cognitive (thoughts), emotional, physiological (body), and behavioral.

Hypervigilance

Insufficient Attunement

KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL SELF-REGULATION

• a degree of awareness of internal states

• ability to tolerate a range of arousal and affect

• ability to engage action and thoughts to modulate arousal and affective state

• understanding the interconnectedness of internal experiences

• understanding the factors that influence internal experience (triggers)

• capacity to communicate experience with others

Inaccurate Attunement

ATTACHMENT: What We Know so Far

CARE GIVER AFFECT MANAGEMENT

ATTUNEMENT

CONSISTENT RESPONSE

ROUTINES & RITUALS

GOAL

Increase the child's understanding of the emotional experiencs of self and others.

Build an understanding of what he or she is feeling and where the feelings come from.

Increase attunement skills to accurately read other people's emotinal states: body language, tone, eye contact etc.

TRAUMA'S INFLUENCE ON CHILDREN'S AFFECT INDETIFICATION SKILLS

• Inability to discriminate between emotional states (everything can seem like anger or frustration, for example).

• Physiological or behavioral expressions of the emotional states
• headaches
• stomachaches

• Disconnect from emotinal states

• Lack of understanding of the relationship between emotional states and external experiences

AFFECT IDENTIFICATION

An awareness of internal experience, the ability to discriminate and name emotional states, and an understanding of why these states originate.

• Traumatic stress can overwhelm a child's ability to manage and this can lead to adopting primitive or unhealthy coping skills.

• The child may develop inadequate or limited skills because of a lack of a supportive caregiver environment.

• A lack of adequate coping skills can lead to a disconnect from the child's emotional experiences.

AFFECT IDENTIFICATION

EXERCISES and METHODS

Pay attention to the child during play, interactions and when making statements.

This is a good time to acknowledge their feelings, which will help them learn to identify them.

ROLE MODEL WITH YOUR OWN EMOTIONAL STATES.

EDUCATE THE CHILD THAT EMOTIONS ARE NORMAL.

HELP THEM IDENITIFY CUES.

EDUCATE THE CHILD ABOUT HOW THE BRAIN WORKS.

"Spidey-Sense"