Interactive Emotional Counseling Book for Strengthening Emotion Regulation among Students with Disabilities in Inclusive Schools

Abstract

This study was motivated by the limited availability of guidance and counseling media specifically designed to support emotion regulation among students with disabilities in inclusive schools. Preliminary findings indicated that students with disabilities in mainstream school settings still experience difficulties in recognizing, understanding, and managing emotions. At the same time, teachers require practical, adaptive, and accessible media to support inclusive counseling services. This study aimed to develop an Emotional Counseling Book as an initial counseling medium to strengthen students’ emotional awareness and self regulation. The study employed a Research and Development approach adapted from Borg and Gall’s development framework, limited to five stages: preliminary study, needs analysis, product planning, prototype development, and initial descriptive review. Data were obtained through preliminary observations, teacher interviews, development documents, and analysis of the media design integrated with an interactive platform. The findings are presented in three aspects: field needs, product specifications, and initial feasibility considerations. The results indicate that students with disabilities need structured support to recognize and regulate basic emotions in inclusive school contexts. The Emotional Counseling Book was designed as a visual, structured, and student friendly medium to help students identify, understand, and manage emotions more independently. Its integration with an interactive platform such as ClassPoint offers an initial model of hybrid counseling media that may encourage more participatory and accessible counseling activities. This study concludes that the Emotional Counseling Book provides a promising initial direction for inclusive emotional counseling media. However, further expert validation, limited trials, and effectiveness testing across different disability groups are required.