"If your body is like a car engine, sometimes it runs on high, sometimes it runs on low, and sometimes it runs just right."
Alert program is a teaching tool to help teachers, parents and therapists coach students with self -regulation difficulties to be aware of their alertness level and use strategies to arrive at a just right level.
The book, How Does Your Engine Run, by Williams & Shellenberger, 1996, describes appropriate strategies to change or maintain states of alertness. Children learn how to self regulate their alertness level depending on their mood such as when they are anxious, hyperactive, or hypoactive. Therapists use this tool to teach students to measure their activity level using qualitative and quantitative scales. Is their engine running Low, High, or Just Right?
The Lighthouse Project staff has received positive responses from parents and teachers who have been trained by our staff to use the Alert Program at home and at school with great result. The Alert Program is based on the sensory integration theory teaching the students to be aware of their alertness level and use sensory strategies to self regulate independently.
Lighthouse Project incorporates the Alert Program in our ongoing weekly sessions and our Summer Programs with successful outcomes.