Aaron enjoys school but sometimes has difficulty regulating his emotions when he feels anxious. This could lead to inappropriate behavior such as screaming or stomping out of the classroom. His teacher worked with Aaron to be aware of and identify his emotional states. One of Aaron’s strengths is that he is able to persist and engage in activities related to his highly focused interest (meteorology). She created a visual scale that incorporated that special interest and fits the specific situations where Aaron is unable to manage emotional responses. After teaching, modeling, and having Aaron practice using the visual scale, Aaron can use it independently when he feels anxious or dysregulated, helping him to more accurately gauge and manage behavior and emotions.
Visual scales are terrific tools that can be used to break down a variety of behaviors into tangible parts (Buron & Curtis, 2012). They can be simple—concretely and visually rating a level of behavior—to more complex—where they support a student in “thinking through” troublesome or frustrating situations. They are especially useful for abstracts concepts such as vocal volume, physical proximity (how close is too close? How far is too far?) and rating a problem (big problem/little problem).
Visual scales can be created and used with individuals or groups of students. One middle school teacher used a vocal volume scale to help students understand expectations around vocal volume in the classroom. She drew a scale on the whiteboard and used numbers to rate levels of volume. She used a magnet to remind the students of where their volume should be during different activities. This helped ALL students understand expectations.
Visual scales can be used to demonstrate that everything is not “black and white” but that there are often various levels of a behavior or concept. They can be useful tools for students who have difficulty with flexibility, impulse control, regulating emotions, and problem solving. You can find templates for simple visual scales here.
References:
Buron, K. D., & Curtis, M. (2012). The incredible 5-point scale: Assisting students with autism spectrum disorders in understanding social interactions and controlling their emotional responses (2nd ed.). Shawnee Mission, KS: AAPC Publishing.