Emotional Wellbeing

Emotional wellbeing is important for healthy behaviours and educational attainment.

The Mental Health Foundation (2016) and Faculty of Public Health describe emotional wellbeing as:

  • The sense of feeling good about ourselves and being able to function well individually or in relationships
  • The ability to deal with the ups and downs of life, such as coping with challenges and making the most of opportunities
  • The feeling of connection to our community and surroundings
  • Having control and freedom over our lives
  • Having a sense of purpose and feeling valued
  • Involves recognising, adding to, and performing from and with your individual strengths
  • See https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk for more information

(Faculty of Public Health (2010). “Concepts of Mental and Social Wellbeing.” Available at: http://www.fph.org.uk/concepts_of_mental_and_social_wellbeing)

Emotional wellbeing creates the foundations for healthy behaviours and educational attainment (social and emotional wellbeing, NICE, 2013).

Greater emotional well-being allows individuals with autism to know

  1. What their needs are,
  2. That they are important and
  3. That they deserve to have a happy, safe and secure life, where they get the chance to realise their potential.

Emotional wellbeing creates the foundations for healthy behaviours and educational attainment (social and emotional wellbeing, NICE, 2013).

Difficulties with emotion regulation or dysregulation, may lead to an increased risk for disruptive behaviour, poor interpersonal relations and difficulties with academic achievement, therefore, for successful maturation and development of independence skills, it is advisable to teach effective age and contextually appropriate coping strategies to a young person with autism from an early age. Students, in order to reach their individual level of independence, need to create their own emotional toolbox of strategies that they can add to, differentiate and use as they develop. Further information can be found, Attwood, T. (2008). The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, UK.

The following strategies are taken from:

Smith Myles, B. (2003) Behavioral forms of stress management for individuals with Asperger syndrome.  Journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America 12(1) pp 123-141 [On-line]: UK Available

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