I Can Do It Share How I Feel Mini Kit

When Tom was younger, it was difficult for me to know  how he was feelings.

He was nonverbal until he was 5years old and even when he started to speak he struggled to find the words to tell me how he was feelings. It was hard to interpret how he was feelings from his facial expressions as he was often expressionless, rarely smiling or frowning. 

Not being able to interpret how Tom was feelings made me feel terrible and made him angry and frustrated leading to frequent outbursts and meltdowns. 

This experience showed me that Tom needed a simple nonverbal way to understand and communicate his feelings. 

Like many autistic individuals Tom has strong visual skills. He finds it easier to understand pictures rather than words. By showing him faces displaying different emotions and pairing them with the words describing these emotions, Tom leant how to identify his emotions and was able to use the pictures to show us how he was feeling. 

Being able to quickly and easily communicate his feelings led to a reduction in his anger and frustration as he felt understood and supported.

We created this visual feelings thermometer with 6 simple colour-graded ‘feelings’ faces to help your child comfortably and confidently share and discuss their feelings, worries and emotions.

Key benefits

• Communicating their emotional state or how they feel about something helps your child to recognise and understand their feelings
• Encouraging your child to rate their anxiety or confidence level before starting a task or activity helps you to decide what support they might need
• Assessing your child’s level of anxiety or discomfort when introducing a change to routine helps you reassure them
• Reflecting back on a task, activity or event that has finished helps develop your child’s resilience
• Quickly and easily check in with your child before school to assess their readiness for learning and after school to alert you to any issues
• Sharing with your child how you feel about their work or attitude helps them develop their ability to recognise the feelings of others

Kit contents

• 1 TomTag Button Holder (use the drop down box below to select your preferred colour) 
• 6 buttons with symbol stickers

Discounted offers

• add as an optional extra with the I can do it manage my feelings kit for £3.00
• add as an optional extra with My TomTag Feelings Notebook for £3.00
• buy 10 or more Share How I Feel  Mini Kits and get 20% off each one (contact us here before purchase )
• Add our FREE download guide to your basket Guide to using a TomTag feelings tag-o-meter for lots of useful tips and ideas 

Dimensions

• TomTag Button Holder:18cm x 3cm
• Buttons: 2cm diameter

The TomTag I Can Do It Range

With this range, it’s quick and easy to make personalised visual timelines, reminders, checklists and prompts which can be used anywhere in the home, at school, in care settings or when out and about.

TomTag visual supports can provide structure and guidance to help children and young people make sense of, remember, and master the steps involved in learning key skills to manage their daily lives.

TomTag is easy to clean and keep hygienic. TomTag’s plastic button holders and blank buttons can be washed in warm water and a little hand soap should they become dirty and dried with a soft cloth. The stickers are highly water resistant. Simply wipe over with a wet cloth or anti-bacterial wipe and dry with a soft cloth.

How does TomTag work?

TomTag uses symbols to show a series of separate tasks or steps involved in a task that are part of a routine, sequence of events in a timeline or they can be used as a list to teach a new skill by breaking down a single activity into smaller steps.

Many children with autism and other additional needs have strong visual skills. They are more likely to remember and understand what they have seen rather than what they hear. Using a visual support like TomTag to present information visually and in a step-by-step manner allows visual thinkers and learners to take in information at their own pace. Visuals can act as a reminder when children forget what’s been said or become distracted. TomTag helps to bring their attention back to the task or current situation.

Our customers say

“Finally I’ve got a ‘emotion-traffic light’. This is great in many ways I can show how I feel if I’m happy or OK or Sad and up to a really deep red angry. But I could use it as a pain scale or a scale of how much energy I have or about my inner tension, how strong a certain emotion is and as well as how bad a flashback is.”

WARNING: Please note – TomTag is not a toy. Not suitable for children under 36 months due to small parts.

(C) Orkid Ideas Limited 2024