Ideas to Support Relaxation and Emotional Regulation
There are lots of different tools that we can use to ‘help fix our feelings’. Everyone is unique which is why it is important to explore which tool is most helpful for you - there is no right or wrong tool - just one that works for you.
On this page you will find information about:
Breathing
Muscle Relaxation
App - Breathe, Think, Do
Energy Levels and Regulation - Power Up and Power Down Activities
Breathing and Muscle Relaxation, are two of the tools in our Emotional Toolkit that we sometimes use in school to ‘help fix our feelings’, and they might help support you or your child to relax at home.
BREATHING
When we are anxious or threatened our breathing speeds up in order to get our body ready for danger. Relaxed breathing signals to the body that it is safe to relax.
Relaxed breathing is slower and deeper than normal breathing, and it happens lower in the body (the belly rather than the chest).
Have a look at this short clip by Dr. Karen Treisman, an author and clinical psychologist, where she shows how to take ‘a mindful moment’ to do some ‘hand breathing’.
MUSCLE RELAXATION
Sometimes when we are worried we tense our muscles. Progressive Muscle Relaxation is a helpful strategy for kids who might worry a lot or have anxiety difficulties, as they are often chronically tensing their muscles.
Muscle relaxation exercises help us learn to distinguish between the feelings of a tensed muscle and a completely relaxed muscle. This in turn teaches us to “cue” this relaxed state at the first sign of the muscle tension that accompanies worry or anxiety.
Useful App - ‘Breathe Think Do’ for Younger Children
This is an app for you to share with your child to help teach skills such as problem solving, self-control, planning, and task persistence. Children can laugh and learn as you help a Sesame Street monster friend calm down and solve everyday challenges. The app is part of Sesame Street’s Little Children, Big Challenges initiative, which aims to provide tools to help children build skills for resilience, and overcome everyday challenges and more stressful situations and transitions. You can access other Sesame Street resilience materials online, at sesamestreet.org/challenges. Meet the Sesame Streeet Monster in the video below.
The app is FREE in app stores for IPhones and Androids.
Energy Levels & Regulation
Amy Laurent is an Occupational Therapist who is part of the team that developed the SCERTS® Model. The SCERTS® Model is a research-based educational approach and multidisciplinary framework that directly addresses the core challenges faced by children and persons with ASD and related disabilities, and their families. On her website, she regularly shares useful resources. The resource I’m sharing in this post is a set of cards for ‘Powering Up and Powering Down’ energy levels, along with a video which explains how to use these.
The cards are designed to support different regulation needs. You will see that each card has the “degree” of regulation. On the other side of each of the cards are generic energy regulation strategies. Each card has several strategies to provide a range of sensory motor and language-based strategies. The cards also offer both self-regulation strategies (i.e, things that the individual can do on their own) and mutual regulation strategies (i.e., assistance they can access from others). You can find out more HERE.