Welcome to the Positive Behaviour

Support Series – Emotion

Dr Anton James

(BSc, PGCert, MEd, MSc, PhD, BCBA, CPsychol, AFBPsS, IBA)

 Learning Outcomes

1) Fight Flight Freeze Response

2) What are emotions?
3) What is alexithymia
4) Alexithymia and special needs
5) What is Theory of Mind (ToM)
6) Changeable variables
7) Viscous cycle (emotion/bodily sensation)
8) Strategies
 Fight Flight or Freeze Response

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWy3t1OIYY8
 Fight/Flight/Freeze response

• A survival mechanism
• Since we evolved faster than other species,
FFF did not evolve appropriately. FFF gets
activated when they are no real threat.
• Triggers, intense emotions such as anger
activates FFF.
• Activated by problems in Sensory Integration
Fight/Flight/Freeze
 Fight/Flight/Freeze response

• Once FFF is activated, logical part of the brain

(frontal lobe) slows down.
• We have to use bottom-up strategies to shut
down FFF
• When the emotional response is overwhelming,
limbic system goes into Amygdala Highjack
• https://youtu.be/385yB5NP6ZA?t=155
 Facts about emotion

• Interocepetion – ability to feel what is going inside the

body.
• We know more about emotion in the past 15 years
than in previous century. Because of imaging
• Emotions are created by neurotransmitters (chemical
messengers) based on our cognition and stimulus
from our senses (simplified)
• Did you know if you make a grimace/smiling face, you
will pay much less pain when you have an injection?
 What are emotions?

• Basic emotions: Anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and

surprise ??
• Biology/Blind
• Cultural differences – visar adicickuthu (frustration, boredom,
anxiety, sad) /
• Language
• Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (Linguistic Relativity Theory) – Language
influence our thoughts and decisions.
• E.g – feeling homy, patronize in Tamil is புரவலர்
• Movie: Arrival
 Remember..

• Why Fight Flight Freeze is important in

emotion…

• Remember why language is important

 Alexithymia

• “No word for emotion”

• Alexithymic individuals have difficulty in recognizing
and describing emotions in themselves:

1) Difficulty in sensing sensation (heartbeat change,

butterfly in tummy, sweating etc.).

2) Unaware of their emotion,

3) Difficulty verbalizing emotions
4) Difficulty in distinguishing between their emotion
• Measured by Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS)
 Alexithymia

1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YelKZH5ehk
(Dr. Neumann, School of Medicine from the University
of Indiana)

What are the changeable variables?

2) Bodily Sensations
3) Unaware of emotions
4) Difficulty Expressing and distinguishing between
emotions via language
 Changeable variables

1) Bodily Sensations – teach to identify bodily sensations

2) Unaware of their emotions – teach them to recognise
their emotions

3) Difficulty expressing their emotion – teach them to

express emotions

4) Difficulty distinguishing between emotions – teach

them to distinguish between emotions
 Alexithymia and Special Needs

• Alexithymia can be found with typically

developing person.

• Alexithymia increases your chances of mental

illness: personality disorders, ASD, depression,
post traumatic disorder, and eating disorder etc.

• Not everyone with autism/special needs have

alexithymia
 Alexithymia and Special Needs

• Children with special needs have additional problem

contributing to Alexithymia: sensory issues

• Special needs children – difficulty identifying,

difficulty verbalizing, difficulty differentiating between
emotions and sensations due to sensory issues –
can create confusing, stimming, anger, withdrawal
etc.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8fcO0i6au0
• Bodily sensation, sensory, language
 Changeable variables

5) Confusion between bodily sensation and emotion –

teach them to sense the bodily sensation in a non
judgmental way (mindfulness)
6) Restlessness causing anxiety – prerequisite for
mindfulness, child friendly mindfulness, special needs
friendly CBT, FDA/NICE approved electrotherapy
7) Unable to identify the emotions caused by sensory
issue – Sensory Integration

8) Feeling of pain causing anger – Teaching to recognise

fight, flight, freeze reactions
 Example of non addressing the
changeable variable

• Participatory Research (verbal autistic people)

• https://youtu.be/WzHE7jL0i-A?t=23
Changeable variables:

• Unable to identify emotion – teach her to identify emotions

• Unable to distinguish between emotions – teach her to
distinguish between her emotions

• Having a meltdown – provide reinforcement for less

meltdown (DRL or DRO) and negative punishments*
 Teaching to identify bodily
sensations

• 1) does your child to know their body parts (including

private parts, private parts/social convention)?
• 2) Does your child know all bodily sensations
(including growling, heart beats etc.)?
• Why some ASD children are unaware of need to go
to toilet?
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq9yWrKcB5Y
• Research on placebo
Symptoms of fight or flight response
 Bodily sensation

• Knowledge of our bodily sensation, signals the

brain you are in control, and fight/flight/freeze
gets deactivated, and executional function gets
activated.
 Fight/Flight/Freeze response

• A survival mechanism
• Since we evolved faster than other species, FFF did not
evolve appropriately. FFF gets activated when they are
no real threat.
• Triggers, intense emotions such as anger activates FFF.
In severe care amygdala hijack occurs
• Once FFF is activated, logical part of the brain slows
down.
• We have to use bottom-up strategies to shut down FFF
Fight/Flight/Freeze
 Teaching to identify bodily
sensations

• Social stories.
• Pulse meter
• Lots of practice
• Deep Breathing
 Deep Breathing

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUmr904wegs
• Deep breathing helps you to deactivate the flight/flight/ free
response
• Deep breathing helps you to identify your bodily sensations
• A) PROMPT approach
• B) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2hRwa8_S5Y
• C) Superhero method
• C) Dr Anton’s approach – 1) No No approach 2) Contact
Approach
 Dr Anton’s approach to
deep breathing

• 1) No No approach
• 2) Contact Approach
 Deactivating Fight/flight/Freeze

• When you are in fight/flight/freeze, you cannot

reason with them. You have to deactivate the
fight/flight/freeze.
• If both parties are in fight/flight/freeze one party
has to stop the cycle FIRST, to stop the
fight/flight/freeze in the other party.
 Wide Range of complex emotions (language)

• Does your child know a wide range of complex

emotions:
• teach them to recognize their emotions – why
teaching to label emotions and identify it helps
to regulate?
• Frustration example on child A
• Bored
• Frustrated (before puberty for special needs child )
• Nervous/anxious (immediately if anxiety is present)
 Wide Range of complex emotions

• Angry (latest by age 5 for alexithymia and 7

years for ToM)
• Happy (latest by age 5 for alexithymia and 7
years for ToM)
• Jealous (immediately if singling is present)
• Frightened (immediately if phobia is present)
• Brave
• Calm (before teaching mindfulness)
• Disgusting
 Wide Range of complex emotions

• well /sick/poorly
• Embarrassed (before puberty)
• Proud
• Excited (immediately if stereotypic behavior is
triggered by excitement )
• Sad (latest by age 5)
• Hatred (immediately if ARFID is present)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpixF7TJIrM
 3) Expressing Emotions

• Can your child verbalize complex range of their

emotions?****
• EMOTI
• Social Stories
• Incidental teaching
• Verbalizing for nonverbal children
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT-
pEHcznQc
 Theory of Mind (ToM)

• Understanding that others have beliefs, desires,

and intentions. E.g empathy, putting one in others
shoe
• Autistic spectrum disorders, including Asperger’s
syndrome, are characterized by an impairment of
ToM (Baron-Cohen et al., 1985, 1997)
• EMOTI
• When reading books, ask them to identify facial
emotions in characters
• Incidental teaching
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7rTDJ-qj1E
 Perspective taking (ToM)

• Perspective taking exercise from Harvard

University
• Changes in your life can be distressing. These
are ideal tool to teach perspective taking, and
identifying emotions in others
• Case study on child P
 Psychosocial Model

• 5) Psychosocial Model
• Family dinner without phone
• Explain to your children about how your day
went
 Psychosocial Model

• Dada - like – Typing, helping, housing, toys, and

presents
• Dada –doesn’t like – doesn’t tell what's the surprise
• Mum - like – yummy food and helping dada
• Mum – doesn’t like – doesn’t buy candy
• Aryan – like –funny face
• Sean – like – toys
 Psychosocial Model

• How can we make our relationship stronger?

• Dada – reading bedtime story (very very
strong), making puzzle together
• Ealan will tell mum and dad everything
happened at school
 Psychosocial Model

• Who wants to share their psychosocial model?

 IQ vs EQ

1) Daniel Coleman
2) Emotionally intelligent people are self aware
(recognising, processing and channeling in a
healthy way)
3) Realistic apperception of strengths and weakness
4) Peer feedback can improve emotions
5) Empathy increases EQ
6) Authoritative Parenting
 IQ vs EQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD3cPIyOtFA