Problem-Solving Pack - Unit on little-medium-big problems - social skills, ASD

Do you have students who will throw a major temper tantrum after losing a game? Or students who have a massive The-World-Is-Going-To-End-And-We're-All-Going-To-Die fit after not getting their way? If so, read on.

I have quite a few kids on my Speech therapy and social skills caseload who really struggle distinguishing small from large problems, so I created this resource for them. This seems to be a particularly large area of need for students on the ASD spectrum or those with behavior / emotional disturbance problems --they have difficulty recognizing when a problem is not serious in nature and may have explosive temper-tantrums even when they are not warranted.

This unit is intended to teach my students how to measure the size of their problems and teach basic critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

In purchasing this packet, you will receive the following PDF files:
• A collection of 120 premade problem scenarios in two separate formats:
o As colorful 3.6” X 2.6” cards – 14 pages
o As a list format – 5 pages
• 9 blank cards to add your own scenarios as they occur in your students’ lives – 1 page
• A step by step guide to analyzing and identifying the size of a problem – 17 pages
• A letter-sized visual poster to remind students of the characteristics of each problem size
o Color
o Black and white
• A worksheet template that I created to help guide students through analyzing a problem
• 4 sample worksheets to guide the teacher / therapist on how the questions should be answered

I have created and improved this packet throughout the last school year as I was developing and using these lessons with my own students in a social skills group and small group therapy setting. It really seemed to work for many of them – I, as well as other support staff have noted some marked improvements in target students’ reasoning and behavior control skills about daily challenges.

I have used these materials with 1st through 5th graders (although the worksheet is geared towards my older groups), but will work well for middle school and high school students as well due to the relative complexity of the subject. You can also just use the problem solving cards as a quick therapy activity to work on identifying and solving problems.

I really hope this packet works as well for your caseload as it did for mine!

If you like this resource, please leave some feedback. If you feel that there is room for improvements, please let me know so that I can make the necessary changes and post a revised product! I want to make sure that I provide the best quality that suits your needs!

Thank you for your support!

If you like this packet, you may also like the following of my social skills-themed products:
Social Skills Group Curriculum
Weekly Social Skills Homework
501 Social Skills Prompts
Teaching Humor & Jokes
5-Point Scale Template
Thanksgiving Manners & Etiquette Game
Holiday Social Skills Game

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Packet contains images created in Boardmaker:
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