Animating Therapy

Media can be such a great way to engage students of all ages in working on therapy objectives. We can help students recognize that all people and characters are engaged in social decision making by using their favorite movies and shows as teaching opportunities. Below are different ways that Pixar Animated Shorts are used to support social regulation goals here at Communication Works. Give it a try at home.  It’s a fun and simple way to support your child’s social/emotional awareness and growth.Partly Cloudy:http://youtu.be/-a6Pe1ovKHg

  • Recognizing and analyzing facial expressions (and explaining why the character might be feeling that way)

  • Pausing the video at different points and making predictions about what will happen next (immediately next, after an hour or two, tomorrow, etc.)

  • Problem solving when the character(s) feel sad/upset/disappointed

  • Making comparisons between happy/joyful/ecstatic/proud characters and sad/upset/disappointed/angry ones

Luxo Jr.:http://youtu.be/Hrnz2pg3YPg

  • Creating a script for one or both lamp characters. This involves perspective taking, theory of mind, and making predictions

  • Inferring how each lamp character feels at different points in the mini movie

  • Making predictions about what will happen next, and supporting those predictions with contextual clues from the mini movie

Day and Night:http://youtu.be/5Z8SXjEu7fg

  • Creating a script for one or both characters. What kinds of expressions are they likely to be using? Are these characters friends? Siblings? Strangers? How do you know?

  • Categorizing the differences between things that happen during the day versus at night. They might be working on finding an efficient way to document all of these examples without having to re-watch the short over and over (this is a critical study skill, too!)

  • Pausing the mini movie at various points and discuss how the characters feel and how you know

The Blue Umbrella:http://youtu.be/lVFNRrL79w0

  • Filling in thought bubbles for each umbrella, and noticing and discussing the changes in what each umbrella is thinking as the short video goes on. Why do these changes in thoughts/emotions/behaviors occur?

  • Making predictions about what will happen next

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