About the Alert Program ...."If your body is like a car engine, sometimes it runs on high, sometimes it runs on low, and sometimes it runs just right." When teachers, therapists, or parents use these simple words to begin the Alert Program, they enter an exciting adventure with children. The journey unfolds easily with the program's clearly defined steps for teaching self-regulation awareness. The book, How Does Your Engine Run? A Leader's Guide to the Alert Program for Self-Regulation (Williams & Shellenberger, 1996), describes an innovative program that supports children, teachers, parents, and therapists to choose appropriate strategies to change or maintain states of alertness. Students learn what they can do before a spelling test or homework time to attain an optimal state of alertness for their tasks. Teachers learn what they can do after lunch, when their adult nervous systems are in a low alert state and their students are in a high alert state. Parents learn what they can do to help their toddler's nervous system change from a high alert state to a more appropriate low state at bedtime. Leaders of the program not only learn what they can do to support self-regulation, but how to share the underlying theory so all can understand the basics of sensory integration. By reading the book or attending a conference, adults increase awareness of their own self-regulation thereby improving their ability to facilitate students' optimal functioning. The Sensory-Motor Preference Checklist (for Adults) is a tool used to support this learning process. For example by filling out the checklist, adults may discover that before work, they may drink coffee, take a brisk walk, or listen to jazzy music to get their engine up and going for the day. Or others may find that they drink hot chocolate, rock in a rocking chair, or watch the glow of a fireplace to get their engine slowed down after a busy day. Bringing to awareness what most people do automatically in their daily routines, fosters the understanding of how important self-regulation is for students' functioning. Although the Alert Program initially was intended for children with attention and learning difficulties, ages 8-12, it has been adapted for preschool through adult and for a variety of disabilities. If children are intellectually challenged or developmentally younger than the age of eight, the program's concepts can be utilized by staff to develop sensory diets (Wilbarger & Wilbarger, 1991) to enhance learning . Join the group of teachers, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, physical therapists, adapted physical educators, educational assistants, counselors, social workers, and parents who are enhancing children's lives using the Alert Program.

Alert Program®

Therapy Works Children's Program: How Does your engine run?®

Alert Program® Products

These are the products used to support the use of the Alert Program®:

product image ALERT: GO FISH!: This outstanding variation of the traditional Go Fish card game is sure to be a favorite in classrooms, homes, and therapy clinics. While playing ALERT: GO FISH!, children have fun while learning to identify "engine speeds" (as described in Stage One of the Leader's Guide).

ALERT: GO FISH! includes a deck of 52 full-color playing cards (approximately 3" x 4"). Cards are illustrated with appealing pictures of animals, boys, and girls in high, low, and just right levels of alertness. This is a two-for-one card game: children can play ALERT: GO FISH! or ALERT CONCENTRATION, a memory game, with the same set of cards. Many game variations, including this memory game, are included in the easy-to-read game instructions.

This printable game can be yours in just a matter of minutes! Click here to learn more about how easy it is to print the cards on your computer's printer. buy

product image ALERT BINGO: You are not going to want to miss this simple, yet engaging Bingo game variation. When playing ALERT BINGO, children have fun while learning the five ways to change engine levels (as described in Stage Two of the Leader's Guide). Rather than the five columns in a traditional Bingo game labeled B-I-N-G-O, in ALERT BINGO, the five columns are labeled Mouth, Move, Touch, Look, and Listen.

Find out how quickly children can learn about self-regulation through ALERT BINGO. You don’t have to wait to receive the game in the mail... click here to learn more about how you can print this exceptional educational game today! buy

product image TEST DRIVE
Introducing the Alert Program® Through Song: This book and CD, with its appealing songs to support children's self-regulation, is full of practical ideas and suggestions. Test Drive is the simplest way to introduce the Alert Program® concepts to children in schools, homes, or therapy settings, even if the reader is unfamiliar with the Leader's Guide or Take Five! books. Listen to a Test Drive song just once and everyone will be humming and tapping their toes to the catchy words and rhymes, perhaps not even knowing they are learning about self-regulation!
listen to sample audio clip
Listen!
Just Right Song:
Emerging Version
listen to sample audio clip
Listen!
Five Ways
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product image INTRODUCTORY BOOKLET: is an excerpt from the first chapter of the Leader's Guide. It is an overview of the program. Parents often use it as resource to give to a teacher to have them understand what they are doing with their child. Therapists often give this booklet to parents to understand what their child is working on in therapy. Teachers often appreciate this concise summary of what the child might be learning at home or with their therapist. buy

product image TAKE FIVE!
Staying Alert at Home and School: was written for parents and teachers, providing activities that are helpful to keep children alert at home and school. Many therapists recommend these low budget, easy to use activities. This book does not teach children about their engine levels, but it is organized around the five ways to change how alert we feel. buy

product image THE LEADER'S GUIDE: contains the complete program. It explains the theory along with step-by-step instructions and activities. It was written for therapists to teach children how to identify and change how alert they feel. Many therapists, teachers and parents have taught themselves how to do the program, just by reading the Leader's Guide book. buy

product image ALERT PROGRAM® CD: is a double CD set. One of the CD's is an introduction to the program with excerpts from the Leader's Guide that are read by the authors. Many enjoy listening to it in the car, rather than reading the booklet. The second CD has fun, playful songs that help children change their engine speeds. As children get familiar with the Alert Program® CD, they will get to know their favorite songs and might request a song that will help them with their engine level. For instance, a child might say something like, "Mom, it's time for me to go to sleep and my engine is running high. Could we play that song off of the Alert Program® CD?" buy

Some people believe that they need all the products in order to do the program. Actually, the Leader's Guide is really the only essential product to be able to do the whole program. But many don't have time to teach the whole program, so they like to start with the Test Drive book and CD, Introductory booklet, Take Five book, or Alert Program® CD. It's up to you!

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