The emotion wheel

The Emotion Wheel is a great tool for especially non-verbal people who are unable to talk or otherwise show how they are feeling. If you have autism or another developmental disorder, you may have difficulty not only expressing your emotions with words, but also with facial expressions and body language. This means that you can’t signal when you’re angry, happy, scared, sad or impatient – and this can lead to some inappropriate reactions from the person and those around them.

Being able to share how you’re feeling is hugely important for your quality of life. While the emotion wheel may not be an exhaustive solution for non-verbal people, it’s a good step towards more equal communication.

The emotion wheel provides the 8 most common choices among the emotions:

• Nervous
• On
• Scared
• Tired
• Irritated
• Discouraged
• Impatient
• Sad

As well as using the emotion wheel to tell others how you feel, you can also use it to identify the emotion yourself and find an appropriate response. You do this by turning the emotion wheel upside down and seeing which of the following solutions fits best:

• Take a deep breath
• Hearing aids
• Find a quiet place
• Listen to music
• Calming object
• Relax and unwind
• Talk about it
• Give a hug

Suitable for use both at home and in institutions. Can be used by both children and adults.