1.) Explore which  muscle input (proprioceptive) activities work for your child:

✔ Pushing a laundry basket around the house, collecting items as they go
✔ Playing a delivery game using heavy water jugs
✔ Wheelbarrow walking
✔ Roll your child up in a blanket like a burrito and apply deep pressure
✔ Animal walks: bear walk, crab walk, snake slither
✔ Jump and crash onto the couch or a pile of cushions
✔ Tug-of -war
✔ Deeper pressure massage
✔ Tight hugs

2.) Sprinkle activities throughout your child's day:

Every time your child engages in an activity that regulates their nervous system, it's like charging their battery. They're able to cope with the daily stressors of life (loud noises, screens, bright lights, schedule changes, unknown expectations etc.) with more ease. When you add an activity to your child's day, research shows it recharges their battery for 90-120 minutes. This means that we can best support kids by offering a regulating activity every two hours or so, to keep their battery from being drained excessively.

3.) Use muscle input as a coping strategy:

✔ Would you like to do 10 big jumps before we solve this problem?
✔ Would you like a deep squeeze to help your body calm?
✔ Would you like to bite down on this chewy toy before we chat about this?

We all have unique sensory profiles,

which means that the way our central nervous system regulates will be unique, too. Our nervous system processes input through our 8 sensory systems:

Hey there, I'm Alyssa Blask Campbell
And as a teacher & a parent, I get it.

I'm a teacher, parent, and an emotional development expert with a master's degree in early childhood education. I co-created the Collaborative Emotion Processing method, and researched it across the country.

My book, Tiny Humans, Big Emotions is publishing in October with HarperCollins!

I'm on a mission to change the ways adults experience children’s emotions so we can respond with intention to raise emotionally intelligent humans.