Teaching self-regulation with breathing prompts is one way to help your child practice the skills they need to calm down later on.

Give them a visual related to an interest and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE in the good moments. Here’s the link to the one we use. Charlie’s automatic reaction the other day during an upsetting situation (when I told him to stop ramming the wheelbarrow into his baby sister) was this yoga pose. It’s because we had just been practicing.

The breathing exercise we use is called the dragon brain. Situation makes the boy angry, boy gets angry, boy gets dragon brain, boy remembers flower and candle breathing, boy smells the flower and blows out the candle, dragon calms down, boy is calm and ready to play. 

If you see them start to get worked up, see a situation that could trigger aggression or a problem. Say, remember the dragon brain!!! Let’s smell the flower and blow out the candle!

Lauren Pace, MS | Parenting Coach | Child Behavior Coach | Logan, Utah | WA | Online