Free emotion matching activities with real photos for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), special education, speech and language, and social skills practice.

This free resource helps students practise emotion recognition using realistic child photo visuals and a clear matching format. Students match coloured emotion photo pieces to grayscale matching boards while building feelings vocabulary, visual discrimination, and early social-emotional learning skills.

What Is Included

This free sample includes:

• 3 emotion matching activities
• 3 grayscale matching boards
• 3 coloured cut-out pages
• 9 matching pieces per activity
• Realistic child photo visuals
• Dashed cutting lines
• Printable PDF format

Emotions Included

• Excited
• Confused
• Silly

Who This Resource Is For

This resource is suitable for:

• Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
• Special education learners
• Speech and language therapy students
• Early years and primary learners
• Visual learners
• Students developing social skills
• Students working on emotion recognition and feelings vocabulary

How Teachers Can Use It

Teachers, therapists, and support staff can use these activities for:

• Independent work
• File folder activities
• Task boxes
• Small-group instruction
• Speech and language sessions
• Social-emotional learning lessons
• Early intervention
• Home practice

Students match each coloured emotion photo to the corresponding grayscale image on the board. Teachers can also use the photos to support simple conversations about facial expressions, feelings, and emotional responses.

Skills Targeted

This resource supports:

• Emotion recognition
• Feelings vocabulary
• Facial expression identification
• Visual discrimination
• Matching skills
• Receptive language
• Expressive language
• Social-emotional learning
• Independent work skills

Why This Resource Is Helpful

The simple matching format is clear, structured, and easy to understand. Realistic child photo visuals help students connect emotion words with facial expressions in a meaningful way.

This free sample is ideal for trying the activity format before using the full version.

File Format

• Printable PDF
• US Letter format
• CMYK colour mode for high-quality printing
• Suitable for laminating and repeated use