Breathing Strategies:
Breathing exercises are a great way to calm the mind and body. There are lots of ways to feel calmer. It is about finding what works for the individual child.
We encourage children to take a deep breath in through their nose, filling their lungs with air then we tell the children to breathe out slowly through their mouth. Taking slow, deep breaths can help the child to feel calmer and more relaxed. There are lots of exercises to try and you can try as many you like until you find what works for the child.
For some children a breathing ball works well.
Developing breathing exercises with children takes time, we use role play and adult modelling of different exercises so that the use of the exercises becomes natural. Remember you need to repeat an exercise lots of times until you feel it actually working.
Some breathing techniques we use are –
- Taking your finger for a walk using your hand – move up and down each finger and thumb – let your breath flow as deep down into your belly as is comfortable, without forcing it. Try breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth.
- Petal breathing – upturn your palms and make the shape of a flower with your hand. Then, you open your fingers like the petals of a flower as we breathe in and close your fingers with your thumb as we breathe out.
- Belly breathing – put your hands on your tummy and slowly breath out, count slowly to 5 and then slowly breath in counting to 5 again.
- Finger tracing – trace the picture with you finger, breathing slowly as you trace the track.
With all of the breathing strategies, repeat several times.
Reach Behaviour 