Here’s what educators have to say about the CAT-kit!

“The CAT-Kit does not merely focus on understanding (emotions); it addresses also skills acquisition training and practice. Step by step, this program teaches children the most important functions and needs relating to emotions, to social relationships, and to better coping.”
Professor Tammie Ronen
Head of Bob Shapell School of Social Work
Tel Aviv University

“I have only had the opportunity to use the CAT-Kit a few short weeks and I have found it to be one of the most powerful behavioral tools I have ever used! Children, teens and adults with whom I work, who have autism and other developmental disabilities and even some without disabilities, LOVE using this tool.”
Kathy Kelchner, M.Ed.
Educational Consultant

"I have used it so far for two lessons. The students seemed to enjoy it and I found it very helpful. I plan on using it for other lessons as well."
Michael Berg, NBCT

"I have used the CAT-kit with several kids and LOVE it! ... The kids seem to relate to the face expressions & I always let them put their own 'feelings word' with the face. I don’t tell them what the emotion is."
Connie Spearman, RES

"I have been able to use the CAT-kit with a student I serve for social skills. He has a lot of anger issues and we are able to use the charts and graphs to help de-escalate situations. For example, we used the day element over several days. It helped us pinpoint when the majority of the behaviors were occurring, which in turn, helped us to understand why."
Mandy, NHE

"I do use my CAT-kit for several of my students. I am also getting my degree in school counseling and am working on my internship and I use it when I do individual counseling, and they LOVE it. Some of my counseling students are students with autism and some are general ed kids. They always ask about the kit when I don't bring it. It is so helpful and organized! Thanks for getting these for us!!!!"
Katie, ABA teacher

Here are some comments from a student!

“I think the faces and words should be used together.”

“The measure is very useful. I could see it being used a lot.”

“The body is pretty good for helping find your feelings.”

“The blank circle is pretty good for helping me understand that I’m not just a ‘mute’ which the other kids and some teachers have said. It helped me see how my talents fit.”

“The day measure was helpful for me. It showed me that I should look for help and talk to someone when I get angry.”

Here are more detailed examples of how educators have found success with particular CAT-kit components!

The Measure
“Kris is a fourth grader with an EH diagnosis. He can be very rough and verbally abusive to his peers. He usually does this impulsively and often complains that his friends won’t play with him. We helped Kris place his anger impulses on the thermometer and then placed faces of his friends’ reactions to his behavior on the other side of the measure. Kris looked and looked at the faces. We then placed faces of his friends on the measure to coincide with Kris’ appropriate behavior. These faces were all, naturally, happy faces. We were then able to point out that his friends wanted to play with him when he was appropriate. Kris has started to get it although he has a way to go.”

"I have used the temperature gauge for conflict resolution with one of my students."
Jason, ECE

“Charlene is a 15-year-old girl with autism. She has great difficulty managing anxiety which results in melt downs that are quite extreme. Charlene used one half of the measure (1-5). The first level was green and indicated when Charlene was relaxed and working well. The top level indicated a meltdown. At each level Charlene was taught an appropriate, alternative strategy to help her get back to the green level. As the day goes her teacher will point to a level and Charlene will try the strategy. This has helped Charlene reduce the number of meltdowns and start to develop some self-management skills.”

"The day after a meltdown, we used the thermometer & faces to show the progression of a student’s emotions during the meltdown the day before. This was great for 'therapeutic rapport.'

"I used the thermometer with a student to show extremes of his emotions & had him describe instances when he felt this way. Then I made small individual copies of the thermometer with the faces on it for the student to keep. He is able to use this thermometer of his expressions to talk about where he is on the scale.

"With two students, we played a game. A student drew a 'situation card' and then described how it would make him feel by putting the expression face on the thermometer. The students took turns drawing cards.
Connie Spearman, RES

The Day
“Chuck is a young man with Asperger’s who also has some severe depression problems and difficulty communicating with adults. One day Chuck came to school in fairly good shape. By first period he was angry and upset. He remained angry and upset for the rest of the morning and was unable to communicate his anger. We used the day line with him placing an angry face from first period on through the rest of the day. We had Chuck draw a line from each angry face to where the anger started. At that point Chuck was able to indicate that he had a problem in the first period when the teacher gave him a task that he could not do. This became an opportunity for Chuck to realize that one problem was ruining his whole day. This is a very important lesson for students on the spectrum. He was also able, with help, to work on a solution to resolve his problem with his teacher.”

“Jimmy is a 2nd grader with autism. He has high anxiety and frequent meltdowns which are usually connected to his communication difficulties. Jimmy did know the difference between a happy face and a sad face so he was reminded every ten minutes or so to place his ‘face’ on the day line at the appropriate time. It quickly became evident that whenever Jimmy was doing well the staff would try to keep him at an activity longer than he could handle. Scheduled breaks were instituted and staff was trained that appropriate behavior for a child with Jimmy’s needs may be stressful also.”

"With one student, we use the day chart to show how his day is going or how the day before went. We use this to discuss choices he made & how he feels after the choices."
Connie Spearman, RE

My Circles
“Chuck is an 18-year-old young man with Asperger’s and serious depression. He is very unhappy at school and is unable to communicate his issues. We used My Circles to try to help Chuck describe his relationship to his school. He placed himself at the center. He then placed one teacher’s name in the first circle. He placed all the rest of his teachers in the outermost circles and the principal outside of the circles. With a little digging and the visual of the circles chuck was able to tell us that the teacher in the first circle was trusted, talked to him like an adult, and attempted to find out his needs. The other teachers were perceived as not caring, untrustworthy and impatient. As for the Principal - he was a ‘liar.’ He was dishonest with Chuck. With this information we were able to help Chuck repair some of his relationships with his teachers.”

“Luann is a girl of 14 with Down’s syndrome. She is very sociable and learned at an early age that hugging was a good thing. Unfortunately she did not learn to discriminate and this has become a potentially serious problem for her. Using the circle we placed individuals that she could hug in the first circle.(Mom, Dad, Sister) In the next circle out Laura placed classmates and teachers who she could ‘high five.’ Then came people she could talk to but not touch etc. Laura reviews this every day and now stops and thinks each time she encounters someone.”

The Week
“Ned is a 7th grader with Asperger’s. He is very rule oriented and will frequently become so upset over rule infractions or get so overloaded that it is impossible for him to work. Ned is also very intelligent so he was quickly able to place emotion faces on the days of the week. Working with Ned we were able to help him find those periods in the day when stress was very high. He was then given the option of leaving the classroom for a brief period after signaling the teacher that he was going. He could only leave for five minutes at a time so that he wouldn’t miss much time. This simple effort combined with teachers willing to understand his needs dramatically improved his comfort and performance in class.”

The Year
“Rob is a 17-year-old young man with fairly severe ASD. He is generally unable to participate in class or even to remain in class for any period of time. He will engage in repetitive behaviors and has serious meltdowns. Rob, as many students with ASD, is rule oriented and takes rules literally. As a child he learned that you wear heavy clothes in winter and light clothes in summer. Unfortunately he also learned that there are ‘official’ dates for summer, fall, winter etc. It doesn’t matter if there are cold spots or unseasonably hot days. He will wear summer clothes no matter how cold it is and a heavy jacket even if there is a very warm day during that winter period. We had Rob fill in the seasons on The Year page which he was able to do. Then we helped Rob place thermometers with appropriate temps on the seasons. The thermometers were then connected to clothing to match the temp. Next we began to move the thermometers around so that the occasional cold day appeared before winter and vice versa. It took Rob two days of practice to begin to understand that the thermometer was a better rule to follow than the ‘official’ season dates.”

The Wheel
“Rob a seventeen year old student with ASD has become very aware of his challenge and very upset about it. He often says that he hates autism and that he hates what it does to him. We sat with Rob and had him draw autism on the circle where he thought it would fit. He wrote Autism in letters large enough to fill the circle stating ‘That’s me.’ We gently started to point out strengths that Rob had and had him write those as ‘pie slices’ on the circle. He gradually began to see that while the ASD did have a defining part of him he also had many characteristics that existed despite the ASD. This allowed Rob to develop a better perspective of himself and to keep his challenge in balance knowing that it did not make him up.”