Four Quick Tips for Regulating Kids Emotions for Back to School

It’s not uncommon for kids to become a bit out of sorts with the change of routine and excitement the holidays bring. With the lead up to school starting, Hart Space wanted to share some powerful and easy ways to help support and encourage children to regulate their emotions. Every parent needs to know the 3 B’s, so make sure you add those to your parenting tool kit…

1.   Keep yourself calm as much as possible. If you are calm, you will able to model calmness to your child. Think of 3 things that help to keep you to feel a sense calm.

My three things are the 3 B’s:
Being organised - back to school routines!
Balance connection with solitude
Breath work.

2.  Reframe your child’s “attention seeking” to “attachment seeking”. Like us, our children want to feel seen and heard. By giving them just 10 minutes of child-directed play each day, that will help to fill their emotional cup. This will help them to self-regulate their own emotions.

3.  Validate your child’s feelings and given them emotive language. I see you are feeling angry right now, what can I do to help you? By giving children language to their feelings, they will be able to better express themselves, which will reduce their feelings of frustration.

4.  If your child becomes dysregulated (tantrum’s), tell yourself that this too shall pass, engage in breath work so you can stay calm as much as possible, and just stay close to ensure your child is safe. Offer hugs or back rubs, until they calm.