The Alert Program® helps to teach children how to change how alert they feel and to teach adults how to support learning, attending, and positive behaviours. By using an engine analogy, children learn “if your body is like a car engine, sometimes it runs on high, sometimes it runs on low, and sometimes it runs just right.”
This easy-to-teach, practical program shows parents, teachers, and therapists how to choose appropriate strategies and activities so children’s engines are running “just right.” Students learn what they can do at circle time or at homework time to attain an optimal state of alertness.
The Alert Program® was found to be effective in helping children to “self-regulate, change tasks, organise themselves, cope with sensory challenges, and focus on tasks in the classroom” (Barnes, Karin J., et al., 2008).
How does your engine run? A Leader's Guide for Self-Regulation How alert or calm do you feel throughout the day and what makes you feel that way? Knowing this can help you maintain a just right level more often. Also, by learning how your own engine runs, you will gain insight that you can pass on to children you work with to help them describe how they feel and what activities make them feel just right throughout their own days.
This book is also included in the Alert Program - 5 pack - by Mary Sue Williams, OTR/L and Sherry Shellenberger, OTR/L -AOTA Approved Includes Introduction Booklet, How Does Your Engine Run - Leaders Guide, Test Drive - Introducing the Alert Program Through Song, Take Five - Staying Alert at Home and School, The Alert Program - Songs for Self-Regulation.
