Instant ways to calm an anxious child and help them self-regulate

This article provides helpful toys to calm an anxious child or they can help kids that don’t know how to self-regulate their emotions in the classroom. Affiliate links are includes for your convenience. Integrated Learning Strategies (ILS) is a learning and academic center. As a reminder, ILS is not a health care provider and none of our materials or services provide a diagnosis or treatment of a specific condition or learning challenge you may see in your child or student. If you seek a diagnosis or treatment for your child or student, please contact a trained professional who can provide an evaluation of the child.

All children become anxious and stressed out at one point of their education with tests, homework, big projects and understanding new concepts. However, anxiety is becoming a bigger issue for many children and it is much more extreme than normal stressful situations. Many of these children haven’t fully developed their limbic system that can lead to emotional grounding issues.

These types of emotions are often manifested in the classroom, at home and in social situations. Many children act out or are known as a “behavior problem” because they are emotionally immature for their age and don’t know how to self-regulate to calm their bodies and their emotions.

If we don’t develop these important areas of the brain, higher learning processes are often disrupted. For example, a child’s executive function is developed at the top level of the brain (cortical level) and is often responsible for a child’s reasoning, organization and planning. If the limbic part of the brain remains underdeveloped, there become gaps in the child’s executive function, which is normally displayed in the child’s emotional state.

Toys for Calming an Anxious Child

If your child hasn’t fully developed their limbic system or if they don’t know how to self-regulate their emotions in the classroom, there are a few techniques you can try at home and at school. To calm an anxious child, you can do some breathing exercises, incorporate some calming activities in their routine or you can use different toys and fidget items to help regulate their emotions in the classroom.

Marble Fidget Toy	Finger Extension Band	Pea Stress Relief Key Chain
Sensory Fidget Pens	Pencil Fidget	Ring Fidget Toy
Liquid Motion Bubbler	Fidget Cube	Stress Ball on String
PUR Chewing Gum	Noise-Cancelling Headphones	Stretch Bands Exercises
Worry Eaters Stuffed Animals	Soothing Sound Machine	Bouncy Bands for Chair
Rock Salt Night Light	Pressure Foam Roller	Weighted Lap Pad
Rubber Grape Squeeze Ball	Squishy Stress Ball	Finger Ring Stress Toy
Stretchy Stress Fidget Toy

Related Products

Integrated Learning Strategies is a Utah-based center dedicated to helping mainstream children and children with learning challenges achieve academic success. Our services provide kids with non-traditional tutoring programs within the Davis County, Kaysville, Layton, Syracuse, Farmington, and Centerville areas. Areas to find Integrated Learning Strategies include: Reading tutors in Kaysville, Math tutors in Kaysville, Common Core Tutors in Kaysville, Tutors in Utah, Utah Tutoring Programs