Skip to main content

SSSD Logo Color 2024 01

Tips For Emotion Regulation

  1. Tapping: butterfly, bi-lateral
  2. Hooking up (cross arms, clasp hands with palms inwards & fingers interlocked. Pull arms threw with clasped hands under chin, pressed to chest)
  3. Grounding: 5 things you see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you taste, and 1 thing you can smell.
  4. Squeeze something: squishy ball, play dough, silly putty, fist.
  5. Drink Something: Hard to do when dis-regulated.
  6. Walk: It is a bi-lateral activity that can calm a person down.
  7. Eat Something: Hard to do when dis-regulated.
  8. Sing a favorite song. Or pick a power song.
  9. Worry Box
  10. Breathing: Hot chocolate, blow bubbles, finger breathing, smell flowers, balloon breathing.
  11. Nickname their anxiety: The worry bug, The Pest, The bully,
  12. Role Play
  13. Make a plan before they are triggered. Be clear on what you will and won’t do.
  14. Practice exposure therapy in small ways. Practice facing fears incrementally.
  15. Talk about it. Identify triggers. Stay calm
  16. Goal is not to get rid of anxiety but to help children learn to tolerate the distress and manage the anxiety.
  17. Personal mantra, or quote they say.
  18. Teach children the connection between anxiety and their physical symptoms.
  19. Have a fear thermometer so they can express where they are at.
  20. Validate their emotions, but DO NOT encourage avoidance.
  21. Change the Channel: When they are worried, teach them to do this.
  22. Help them learn to SELF SOOTHE.
  23. Make a calm down spot in your home.
  24. Insure good rest and nutrition
  25. Have a transitional object they take with them.
  26. Have your child write a letter to themselves: “Dear Me:”
  27. Talk to your worry.
  28. Teach your child to give themselves a hug.
  29. Make a calm down checklist of what works.
  30. Rub Ears
  31. Teach Progressive Muscle Relaxation
  32. If it works for them, use a reward system.
  33. Read books that will help them.
  34. Teach them about thinking errors according to their age level.
  35. Learn about and teach them mindfulness.
  36. Teach them they can embrace the worry and be okay.
  37. Be in nature more.
  38. Don’t over schedule them.
  39. Use spiritual practices if they help them.
  40. Control your own emotions when they are struggling.
  41. Talk to teachers and have a code word or signal a child can use for a needed break.
  42. Have a plan for when the child calls home from school.
  43. Ask kids what’s on their mind so they can learn to identify and label what is happening.
  44. Recognize all progress even if it’s in small bites.
  45. Let THEM brainstorm what will help them.
  46. When they have “flipped their lid”, don’t reassure them with words, help them regulate.
  47. Help them go from “what if”, to “what is”.
  48. Help them identify a safe and relaxing place or memory to recall as needed.
  49. Use art as a way to calm.(coloring, painting, sidewalk chalk...)
  50. Use humor: Laughter releases endorphins.
  51. Chew gum.
  52. Pet an animal.