One self-regulation skill that we have been practicing a lot with both of my boys is how to do deep breathing to calm down.
For instance, we practice during our nightly family meditation time.
Or we simply pick one of these deep breathing exercises for kids and practice it a few times together.
And all the practice is starting to pay off!
How do I know?
Well, for starters, a psychologist recently pointed out how awesome my son J is at deep breathing. I also caught J doing some deep breathing on his own during a really long wedding ceremony we attended recently. He did it totally unprompted by himself. It was really quite wonderful to watch!
Now, it did take quite a bit of practice to get both boys to remember to breathe in slowly and exhale slowly. They started off doing short, fast, shallow breaths, like they were racing to be the first one done, which isn't super effective. So we gave lots of reminders and verbal prompts to help teach the skill, but this free printable social story for kids about deep breathing is another tool that you can use to teach deep breathing to your kids. I hope you find it helpful!
About the Free Printable Calm Down Breathing Social Story
This social story is all about teaching deep breathing to calm down. It teaches kids how to take a deep breath and the steps required. It also explains when you might need to do calm down breathing exercises.
I highly suggest laminating the social story for durability. You can use binder rings to keep the social story together or store it in a binder. As an alternative to laminating, you could use sheet protectors in a binder. Or if you find yourself printing off lots of social stories, then this binding machine is a lifesaver!
Download the Free Printable Social Story for Teaching Deep Breathing
