Classroom Activities for Emotional Disabilities

Teaching children with emotional disabilities is a rewarding and challenging role. Engaging and inspiring children with emotional disabilities is essential for them to improve life skills, participate in group work and overcome some of their behavioral difficulties. Organizing classroom activities such as arts, crafts and music groups will be beneficial in keeping the children interested in their schoolwork, helping to improve interactive behavior and boosting confidence in the classroom environment.

Music Groups

• Music is an important and highly effective medium when working with children with emotional disabilities. Sit the children in a circle and pass around percussive instruments like tambourines, maracas and bongo drums. Drum out basic patterns and encourage the children to copy the rhythm themselves. Alternatively, help the children to work together to make up a simple song. Arranging a musical group or workshop will help increase the children's confidence, interaction and creativity.

Collage Making

• Collage making is a simple yet engaging art exercise, and is a suitable classroom activity for a wide range of skills and abilities. Provide the children with old magazines and comic books. Using plastic safety scissors, help the children cut out their favorite pictures and illustrations. Encourage the children to work together to arrange and paste the pictures onto large sheets of paper in their chosen designs.

Baking Treats

• Cookery classes are an important classroom activity for children with emotional disabilities. Not only do they require concentration and creativity, but cookery classes will also improve children's weighing and measuring skills. Make simple sweet treats such as fairy cakes or flapjacks. Encourage the children to weigh and mix the ingredients and to keep track of time while the cakes are in the oven. Once the cakes have cooled, help the children ice and decorate them.

Confidence-Building Activities

• Children with emotional disabilities often have difficulties interacting with others. Confidence-building activities can be a fun way to boost the children's social skills in the classroom environment and help create bonds between the children. Encourage the children to work in pairs and ask them to find out one interesting fact about their partner. Each pair will take turns telling the rest of the group the interesting fact they have learned.