In Austria we were motivated by their visual tools for moods grading.

A visualized tool for the pupils to communicate about their emotions.

We were motivated in Vienna when we saw how the pupils visualized there moods in different ways and at several times during their school day. In one of the integration classes we even saw Lego as a tool – nice to see that the old Danish toys still has a lot of potential :-)

A lot of the pupils at our school are challenged in different ways during the school day, where they have to develop personal-, social- and educational skills.

At the time for the Austria visit we had a pupil who was very challenged. If he got frustrated in the learning process or if he misunderstood other people, his anger and resentment often affected the rest of the school day. Both his parents and the staff were unsure of the best way to help him, and to support him to experience the different emotions he had in different contexts.

At first we gave him the opportunity to express his emotions, the different between them and to give examples of in which situations he experienced the emotion. Here it was useful to build on the "traffic light of behavior" (CAT- kit material) he already knew and were familiar with.

The next step was to evaluate each school day part for part using the colors similarly to his own "emotion scale".

The visualized emotions and the communication about the situation were marked in a schedule. This visualizing supported the pupil, so that he could register one emotion and still remember that he had other experiences the same day.

A very positive side effect was - and is- the cooperation between parents and school. The pupil can expect the same visual structure at the communication home.

Also the pupil, his parents and the school staff are sure, that the day in school contains different experiences that affect your emotions, and that the pupil can handle all of them.

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