Teaching kids emotional self-regulation is easy when you use social stories for calming down. This free printable calm down strategies story for kids is fun and unique, yet perfect to use in the classroom or at home.
If there is one thing I learned from this past school year, it's that we still really need to work on self-regulation skills with J.
We are constantly trying to add new calm down strategies to his coping skills toolbox and have known for years that math and numbers are comforting and calming to him. So I have combined the two into a simple story for him to read.
This free printable calm down strategies story for kids focuses on teaching calm down strategies, such as counting backwards, deep pressure, and deep breathing, for instance. It gives my son a structured calm down routine that he can read and implement as a way to self-regulate. It is a story about being calm and knowing what to do when they feel upset or frustrated.
And turns out, my youngest, K, really loves the story too! Good thing because a little extra practice for him wouldn't hurt either.
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Free Printable Calm Down Strategies Story for Kids
The staying calm social story is short and sweet, working backwards from ten to zero, in short rhymes, teaching different calm down strategies along the way. From roaring out big feelings to blocking out visual and auditory input in easy ways, this story is a perfect read for young kids. Especially for hyperlexic kids who are fascinated with numbers.
Each page features a picture of a child climbing on the number and two lines of rhyming text that encourage kids to stretch and wiggle and move their way to a calm body. You can see some of the pages below. The printable is available in color, but works just as well in black and white.
See the Whole Calm Down Social Story
To give you an idea of what the story says and what strategies it uses, my son K takes you through a reading, complete with actions, dimples, and a tongue sticking out. If for some reason you don't see the video below, you can watch it here.
Download the Free Printable Calm Down Strategies Story for Kids
This free printable calm down story includes 6 pages. Simply print, cut along the dotted lines, and staple it into a book. Read through the story with your child a few times and perform the actions on each page so that they can learn a variety of calm down strategies. Hopefully, with practice, they'll learn to do the actions independently when they need help regulating themselves.
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