Deep Breathing Activities to Calm Sensory Meltdowns and Ground Emotions

This article provides helpful deep breathing activities for children that struggle with sensory defensiveness, sensory meltdowns, anxiety, panic attacks and hyperventilation. 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.

Deep breathing activities can be a helpful tool when your child or student experiences big emotions. No matter if it was because of unwanted sensory information within their environment or if they are prone to high anxiety, deep breathing techniques can make all the difference.

Children, at any age, experience all types of emotions. Just like us, some days are better than others. However, there are those children who may be on a constant emotional rollercoaster and it can be difficult to calm them down once they are in an emotional spiral.

If a child is overly emotional, they may express their emotions in one or more of the following ways:

Hitting or kicking
Crying (usually for long periods of time)
Biting objects or people
Throwing items
Stomping or jumping up and down

When you can identify the child’s method of emotional expression, you can provide additional help and safe zones for them to process and express those emotions. Part of grounding emotions also means having some type of emotional outlet for the child. This is why deep breathing activities can be so effective.

What happens when a child is in meltdown mode?

There are a number of reasons why a child may reach meltdown mode. While many of these situations can be prevented, there are times where you are unable to predict or know when a meltdown will happen. Before a meltdown reaches it’s peak, you can ask yourself a few of the following questions to determine what may have caused an emotional response:

Is my child hungry?
Is my child feeling overstimulated by what’s happening in the moment?
Did my child come across unwanted sensory information?
Has my child had enough sleep?
Did anyone around them provoke or contribute to the meltdown?

From these questions, you may know immediately what triggered the emotional response. However, sometimes it’s not always easy to pinpoint exactly what happened or what went wrong. As a result, the child may respond in some of the following ways:

Fight or flight
Panic attack
Anxiety attack
Hyperventilation
Angry or irritable
Freezing or “deer in the headlights”

When a child is in the middle of an emotional response, all logic goes out the window and the emotion takes over. In these situations, the child’s executive functioning system that directs higher thinking and controlled behavior is no longer able to override their emotions. This can cause the child to be impulsive rather than handling frustration and stress in a more “grown-up” way.

Children who are prone to sensory sensitivities are often in a state of fear or panic. That is why panic attacks and hyperventilation can be common emotional responses with sensory defensive kids.

Why Breathing Control Helps Emotional Responses

Deep breathing activities and methods are linked to helping children and adults regulate their emotions. Breath control is one of the quickest and easiest ways to get a child back to using their executive function skills. Teaching these types of methods to children can help them learn how to self-regulate on their own when you are not around. As the child grows older, they will become more aware of what their body needs and how they can use these tools to prevent or temper big emotions when they begin to feel out of control.

By teaching them how to use deep breathing activities, the child can learn to manage their emotions or behaviors to calm symptoms before they become unmanageable.

How Deep Breathing Activities can Help

In Too Loud, Too Bright, Too Fast, Too Tight: What to do if you are Sensory Defensive in an Overstimulating World, Sharon Heller, Ph.D., says the following about breath control:

“Breath control is the ultimate means of body control and becoming present in the moment. If you do deep breathing for 3 to 10 minutes a day, twice a day, you will strengthen the muscles that support breathing and gradually enhance their flexibility and resilience. This will reset the rhythm and rate of your breathing, and with regular deep-breathing practice, increase your lung capacity to enable you to breathe more deeply.”

Using deep breathing techniques can calm children in many of the following ways:

Prevents anxiousness
Calms the fight or flight response
Slows heart rate
Releases pent-up emotion
Clears the mind and calms the nervous system
Grounds emotions
Improves focus and memory
Reduces stress and anxiety
Triggers relaxation and calming

Deep breathing activities also help the child regulate their outward breathing as well as their inward breathing. Outward breathing is just as important as inward breathing because it prevents large amounts of carbon dioxide to build when the child’s breath is short and delayed. Too much carbon dioxide can be harmful for children and can even cause dizziness and more panic.

In addition, belly breathing can decrease the child’s heart rate and triggers the relaxation response. Emotions like stress or anxiety cannot occur when deep breathing is being exercised.

Deep Breathing Activity Recommendations

Before teaching your child or student a few deep breathing activities, it’s important to keep a few things in mind. As you practice a few of these deep breathing activities with your child or student, help them learn to listen to their body. When the child is calm, teach them how to ask themselves the following questions:

“Am I tired?”
“Am I frustrated?”
“Am I tense?”
“Does my body feel out of control?”
“Do I need to speak up and tell an adult?”
“Am I close to a meltdown?”

Giving “labels” to the child’s emotions and talking about deep breathing activities before a meltdown happens can help the child know exactly what to do automatically in times of need. If you try to teach them these techniques during or in the middle of a meltdown, the child’s emotional brain takes over and they are unable to think logically.

If you start to notice any of the following signs in your child or student, you can immediately begin deep breathing activities:

Shallow breathing
Pacing
Repetitive questioning
Fidgeting
Rocking
Covering eyes or ears
Withdrawing from activities
Sweating
Headaches
Stomach pains

For 8-strategies to get you started on a step-by-step process to help your child self-regulate their emotions, download our Rewiring the Brain Roadmap here.

Deep Breathing Activities

As you begin practicing the deep breathing activities below, you can adjust or alter the exercise to fit your child or student’s individual needs. Try a few of the following ways to introduce deep breathing activities into your child or student’s daily routine:

Use a variety of deep breathing activities to see which ones work best
Practice before bedtime to also help the child relax and sleep better
Daily breathing exercises are encourage (not just when a meltdown happens)
Make adjustments depending on the child’s age or level of understanding

#1 Stuffy Belly Breathing (Diaphragmatic Breathing)

Most adults don’t get deep breath from their belly like babies do when they are infants. We tend to breath through our chest as we get older, which could be why adults tend to be more stressed and anxious. Chest breathing can prevent much-needed air to our lungs so it’s important to focus on deeper breaths within the abdomen.

When your child is stressed, anxious or experiences sensory defensiveness, use the following steps to begin deep breathing exercises:

Instruct your child to lay flat on the ground on a soft mat or carpet (knees can be bent if preferred).
Place a small stuffed animal or weighted plush toy on top of their belly.
Direct your child to take a deep breath in through their nose.
As they breathe in, tell them to let their belly push the stuffed animal up while their chest is still.
Hold the deep breath for three seconds.
Tell the child to breathe out slowly and purse their lips as they exhale.
While exhaling, encourage your child to feel the stuffed animal on their belly go down.
Complete the breathing activity three times.

These types of deep breaths can benefit your child in the following ways:

Calms the body
Relieves pain
Detoxifies the body
Improves posture (important for gross motor skills and core muscle)
Increases blood flow

#2 Alternate Nostril Breathing

Another style of breathing exercise is Alternate Nostril Breathing (ANB). Research suggests that there is an association between the side of your nose that you breathe with dominantly and the cerebral hemisphere that is more active. Scientists have hypothesized that left-nostril dominance activates the parasympathetic nervous system with a focus on relaxation. Right-nostril dominance elicits the sympathetic nervous system, which regulates your child’s levels of stress, panic, heartbeat and adrenaline.

The steps for this deep breathing activity are as follows:

Ask your child to close their right nostril with their right thumb, breathing out completely through the left side of the nose.
Inhale very slowly through the left nostril.
Now, close the left nostril with left thumb (while the right nostril is still closed with the right thumb) and hold the air they inhaled for a few seconds.
Remove the thumb from the right nostril and exhale slowly.
Inhale through the right side of the nose.
Repeat cycle for up to 20 cycles and keep practicing.

The ANB breathing method can benefit your child in the following ways:

Helps the child focus on better body awareness
Calms and centers the mind
Harmonizes the right and left hemispheres of the brain
Balances the child’s energy channels
Helps the child shut out unwanted sensory information and anxious thoughts

#3 4-7-8 Breathing Activity

For this exercise, have your child sit up straight and instruct them to place the tip of their tongue against the ridge of tissue just behind their upper teeth. As your child exhales through their mouth during the exercise, they will purse their lips slightly. This releases the air while keeping their tongue just behind their teeth.

The steps for this deep breathing activity are as follows:

Exhale completely through your mouth making a whoosh sound.
Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to the count of four.
Hold your breath for seven seconds.
Exhale completely through your mouth using a whoosh sound while counting to eight in your head.
Repeat the exercises a total of four times.

The 4-7-8 deep breathing activity can help kids in the following ways:

Calms fight or flight response
Reduces stress
Improves sleep
Helps focus and concentration
Lowers blood pressure
Regulates emotions

#4 Blow Out the Candles Activity

For this activity, have your child or student sit on a soft surface or on the carpet. The child can be kneeling or sitting in the criss cross applesauce position. Sit in front of the child so you can help with the activity.

The steps for this deep breathing activity are as follows:

Ask the child to take in a deep breath through their nose while poking out their tummy (belly breathing).
Have the child hold their breath for three seconds (tell them to imagine they are smelling the cake).
Hold up five fingers in front of the child and tell them they are birthday candles on a cake and to blow them out.
Instruct the child to blow out each candle as they release their breath.
Repeat breathing activity three times.

The Blow Out the Candles breathing activity can help kids in the following ways:

Calms the brain
Calms fears and anxiety
Clears the mind

#5 Star Pose Breathing Activity

In this activity, the child needs to lay flat on the ground on a soft mat or on the carpet. Ensure the child is comfortable before performing the exercise. This breathing activity is especially important for children who experience sensory sensitivities, sensory seeking behaviors or you can use it for those who have a retained Primitive Reflex.

The steps for this deep breathing activity are as follows:

Ask the child to bring their knees up to their chest and place the same hand over the same knee (do not let the hands cross over each other).
Tell the child to take a deep breath and push out their tummy (belly breathing).
Hold the breath for three seconds.
As the child releases the breath, have them bring both the hands and legs out into a star position (looks like a snow angel).
Repeat exercise three times.

The Star Pose breathing activity can help kids in the following ways:

Calms sensory sensitivities
Lowers heart rate
Regulates emotions
Calms high-energy and seeking behavior
Encourages foundational grounding

#6 Buzzing Bees Breathing Activity

For this activity, have the child sit criss cross applesauce on a soft mat or the carpet. Ask the child to get their hands ready to use as a bumble bee. Sit in front of the child and use your hand to help them pretend you are a flower or tree.

The steps for this deep breathing activity are as follows:

Ask the child to take in a deep breath, poking out their tummy (belly breathing).
Tell the child to hold their breath for three seconds.
Ask the child to release their breath in short bursts of air while pursing their lips and making a buzzing sound.
You can tell the child your hand is a flower or tree and they can buzz their bee toward your hand.
Repeat activity three times.

The Buzzing Bee breathing activity can help kids in the following ways:

Improves memory and concentration
Lowers blood pressure
Relieves congestion in lungs and chest
Relives headaches
Reduces stress

#7 Lion’s Breath Breathing Activity

This activity is not only beneficial, but a lot of fun for the kids. It’s primary purpose is to help children release big emotions or tension they may be feeling within their abdomen. Have the child sit criss cross applesauce or on their knees on a soft mat or carpet. Sit in front of the child so you can assist as needed.

The steps for this deep breathing activity are as follows:

Have the child take a deep breath, poking their tummy out (belly breathing).
Ask the child to hold their breath for three seconds (you can count for them).
Tell the child to “roar” out their breath as big and as loud as they can just like a lion.
Repeat activity three times.

The Lion’s Breath breathing activity can help kids in the following ways:

Releases tension in the face and neck
Relieves big emotions or frustrations
Improves vocal quality for speech and language development
Helps communication and self-expression
Improves mental clarity
Relaxes the body for better concentration

For a printout of all these breathing activities and instructions, complete the form below and the breathing packet will be emailed to you. Remember to confirm your subscription in your email inbox and check your spam or junk folder for the download link.

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

Deep Breathing Activities to Calm Sensory Meltdowns and Ground Emotions

What happens when a child is in meltdown mode?