We could all use an extra dose of sunshine and fresh air to shake off the last remnants of winter and feel more like ourselves again! Being cooped up inside for too long can certainly take a toll on your mental health, and the teachers and families of young children know this all too well – limited ways to get out excess energy can lead to dysregulated little ones (and adults).
Fortunately, spring is here, and spending time outside is one of the best ways to reset our nervous systems, regulate our heightened emotions, and feel more grounded. For young children who still need help with regulating their bodies and emotions, this means that the outdoors can be a perfect co-regulation partner.
Co-regulation is the first step on the pathway towards self-regulation. Self-regulation is a learned skill and outgrowth of co-regulation, which involves caregivers supporting, modeling, and teaching young children to strengthen their emotional regulation skills. This means that as parents, teachers, and caregivers, how you express and regulate your heightened emotions matters.
When engaging in co-regulation, your actions and responses are important – children look to you for guidance and what to do next. Using a calm tone of voice, modeling how to take deep breaths, gentle and soothing touch, and getting down to the child’s level are all important components of co-regulation.
Once children start to calm down, you can then introduce other strategies for them to explore with you during dysregulated moments, such as taking space in a quiet area, reading a book, squeezing a pillow, or taking a walk. Eventually, they will learn to reach for these strategies on their own when they experience big feelings – hello, self-regulation!
Related blog: The Power of Emotional Regulation and Problem-Solving Skills
If you are just getting started on your own self-regulation journey, or you are finding that you need a little support when it comes to helping the young children in your life with their big emotions, let nature and the outdoors take the lead with these activities!
Flowers are blooming as the weather warms, and “smelling the flowers” is a great activity to help children learn how to take deep breaths. Take a walk through your neighborhood and have children keep an eye out for a flower to smell. Guide them to take a deep breath in through their nose, and then out through their mouth. How many flowers can you smell on your walk?
Extension Idea: Using our different senses can help us feel present and safe when experiencing anxiety and tapping into different senses can help young children and adults feel more connected to their bodies during big emotional moments.
🌷Take this activity a step further by turning your walk into a floral sensory scavenger hunt!
Did you know that listening to birdsong has been proven to reduce stress and improve our mental health? Take 5-10 minutes to sit outside in your backyard, a park, or a quiet outdoor space and tune in to listen to the birds. For older children, guide them to close their eyes, focus on their breaths, and open their ears to hear the birds around them. For younger kiddos, sitting still for 5 minutes may be more of a challenge, but you can use prompting questions to keep them focused:
Sometimes, we just need to take some space alone to recharge or calm down. In your home or classroom, you can utilize a calm, quiet area to create a calm-down corner indoors, but there is no reason you can’t create one outside, too!
This activity may require a few trips outside to collect different items, but moving our bodies and using our hands to create something is another great way to ground and regulate ourselves. Guide children to be on the lookout for curved sticks, flat rocks, and pretty flowers to create their own space to sit, take deep breaths, read a book, or simply spend some time outside to decompress.
Let children take the lead with how this cozy space should look, and prompt them to visit this special outdoor calm-down area whenever they need it.