Instant ways to calm an anxious child and help them self-regulate This article provides helpful…
CALMING STRATEGIES: Calming Strategies for Anxious Children, Fidgeting, and Fight or Flight
This article provides helpful calming strategies to help anxious children. Affiliate links are included 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.
Many times small children are more prone to tantrums and meltdowns because they are in the middle of developing their language skills and have a hard time saying how they feel, what they are thinking and what they want. Usually tantrums decrease after the age of three because language skills and emotional development improve. However, if you still have a child that has severe tantrums, meltdowns or is in fight or flight mode at home and at school, it could be a sign that they struggle with extreme anxiety and can’t self-regulate their emotions in stressful situations.
Today, we are finding more children perform well academically in school, but they are often distracted, socially awkward and sometimes they display “bad behavior” because their body can’t physically calm down. Sometimes the symptoms are so subtle, parents and teachers often overlook the signs that their child needs help.
Calming Strategies
To help an anxious child, we can provide them with calming activities and exercises to prevent anxiety attacks or hyperventilation. As we incorporate some of these items in their daily routine, children will learn to use these same exercises for self-regulation in stressful situations. These activities can be customized to any holiday, daily routine or special occasion.
Calm Down Bottle
Calm down bottles are one of the most effective tools for both prevention and hyperventilation when your child becomes overly anxious at home or in school. You can easily create your own with varying objects like glitter, toys and other small items. Calm down bottles provide your child with visual stimulation that can help reduce their heart rate, regulate their nervous system and control their breathing.
Some of the items you can use are as follows:
Sensory Bins
Children sometimes display behavior issues because they don’t have enough sensory integration. Creating sensory bins for your child allows them to use their tactile system, oral sensory and visual-motor skills, hand-eye coordination and motor planning. For a base item, add straw, beans, corn or rice, and then add other fun objects like whistles, toys, erasers, action figures and scoop cups so your child can explore, touch, taste and discover all the items in your sensory bin.
Some of the items we used include the following:
Stress Relief Balloons
Stress relief balloons work in the same way as a stress ball does. It provides your child with an object they can fidget with at their desk to channel any anxiety and pent-up energy in stressful situations. First, stuff one small container of play dough inside a balloon. Feel free to draw fun faces on the balloon and tie it at the end once you have inserted the play dough. Have your child squeeze the balloon tightly and hold for 20 seconds. Release slowly and then have your child squeeze the balloon with each finger individually to hit certain pressure points and slow the heart rate.
Materials we used for this activity include the following:
Leaf Blower
When a child is overly anxious or begins to hyperventilate, their breathing becomes shallow and they cannot breathe in fully. It’s important to help them with deep breaths, but it is equally as important to have them breathe out to calm their respiratory system. To accomplish this task, take a lunch bag and fill it with some small paper cutouts or tissue paper pieces (for example, leaves, hearts, stars, flowers, etc.). Cut a hole on the side of the bag and insert a straw. Have your child blow into the straw (with a good amount of force) to get the leaves to jump and swirl in the bag. This activity will also help your child develop their speech and language skills.
Materials for this activity include the following:
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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
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