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For many children, regulating emotions isn’t an innate skill. Both mainstream and special needs students require learned strategies and guided support to manage heightened emotional states. Equip your students with self-regulation techniques suitable for all ages and abilities. From five-finger breathing to setting up calm-down corners, there’s a strategy for everyone. This guide also offers classroom tips and methods to prevent emotional dysregulation from escalating into more significant classroom challenges.
1. Bring in breathing exercises
Engaging in deep, intentional breathing during emotional upheaval can help students reconnect with their bodies. These exercises interrupt the “fight or flight” response, allowing both kids and adults to lower their heart rate and think more clearly.
Some effective breathing exercises for students include:
- Blow out the Candle, Smell the Flower: Imagine blowing out a candle while exhaling and inhaling as if smelling a flower.
- Five-finger Breathing: Trace your fingers while inhaling and exhaling slowly along each one.
- Balloon Breathing: Place your hand on your belly and feel it rise and fall like a balloon with each deep breath.
- Box Breathing: Draw a square in the air, inhaling on one side, exhaling on the next, and continue.
Integrate breathing exercises into daily routines or morning meetings for all students, and demonstrate them during noisy or stressful times throughout the day.
Teach breathing exercises as part of your classroom culture
Students who find self-regulation challenging need reminders to use their breathing exercises when upset. Display posters and visuals in the classroom to prompt kids to breathe deeply and self-regulate during stressful times.
Mindfulness Dog Breaths: 24 Breathing Techniques
By: Mental Fills Counseling Tools
Grades: K-3rd
Subjects: School Counseling, Social Emotional Learning
This dog-themed set of breathing exercises provides students with a starting point for learning self-regulation. It includes 24 printable dog bones featuring various breathing exercises, with detailed descriptions for older students.
2. Identify and find the feelings
Instructing students to “calm down” is ineffective if they don’t comprehend their emotions or understand where they’re manifesting physically. Many SEL activities for elementary students emphasize identifying emotions with vocabulary. Encouraging students to make a physical connection with their emotions is beneficial, especially for those whose dysregulation is more outwardly expressed.
Display an image of a person’s body on the board and have students identify where they typically sense their emotions. Some might say “head” or “heart,” but encourage specificity. Do they feel stress in their stomach, chest, or shoulders? Do their cheeks get hot, or do they feel a sudden headache when upset? Reference these discussions when students encounter stressful situations where self-regulation is needed.
For older students, incorporate this approach into an emotions journal to track feelings over time.
Help students find out exactly how they’re feeling
Do your students know if they’re feeling sad, frustrated, angry, or stressed? Assist them in identifying their feelings with worksheets and activities that explore different emotions and coping mechanisms.
Identifying Feelings Emotions Worksheets | Emotional Self Regulation Activities
By: Fairy Poppins
Grades: PreK-1st
Subjects: Health, Social Emotional Learning
Feelings can sometimes be too complex for young children to manage. This resource helps them understand their emotions through social-emotional worksheets, connecting emotions to situations and recognizing how they affect physical sensations.
3. Create a calm-down corner
Some children benefit from a bit of separation from the group to self-regulate. A calm-down corner in the classroom provides that space, featuring various self-regulation strategies to help students regain control before rejoining their peers.
Ideas for a calm-down corner include:
- Posters with positive affirmations or breathing exercises
- Bean bag chairs, pillows, and other comfortable seating options
- Sound-blocking headphones to reduce sensory input
- Fidget tools to help with anxiety
- Stuffed animals for kids to hug or talk to
- Sensory bottles that let kids focus on glitter falling (which is also a good class craft!)
- Visual timers for students to monitor their own self-regulation
Include visits to the calm-down corner in students’ 504 behavior intervention plans, or provide a pass allowing them 5-10 minutes in the corner as needed.
Create a student reference tool to use in a calm-down corner
Often, a student’s own work serves as the best reminder. Encourage them to create a self-regulation tool for use in the calm-down corner, allowing them to reference their own words and tips to escape a dysregulated state without outside intervention.
Self regulation & emotion feelings behavior control calm down corner kit visuals
By: Miss Dee’s Homeroom
Grades: 2nd-5th
Subjects: School Counseling, School Psychology, Social Emotional Learning
Provide students with everything they need for a self-regulation session right at their fingertips! This comprehensive resource helps create a lapbook with emotion charts, coping skills, and reminders about appropriate behaviors during dysregulated moments, guiding students toward better emotional control.
4. Introduce strategies for impulse control
When students feel dysregulated, managing their initial impulses becomes challenging. However, impulse control is crucial for learning self-regulation, and taking a moment to reflect on their actions can help prevent dysregulation.
Maintaining a predictable classroom structure with minimal changes aids in impulse control by providing a non-threatening environment. Introduce a small “Stop” sign (or have students make their own with paper and popsicle sticks) and use it during calm moments for students to assess their feelings. Use the sign during heightened emotions to encourage students to pause before acting on their first physical or emotional impulses.
While reading picture books or chapter books, periodically pause and ask what decision the character should make next. This models decision-making and supports students’ critical thinking and impulse control skills.
Guide students through the steps of controlling their impulses
Impulse control can be a challenging self-regulation strategy for kids, especially those with ADHD or other conditions that complicate the connection between action and consequence. Incorporate activities focusing on impulse control to teach students the impact of their actions on the environment and people around them.
IMPULSE CONTROL WORKSHEETS ACTIVITIES Self Control Self Regulation Worksheet
By: All Therapy Resources
Grades: 3rd-6th
Subjects: Classroom Community, School Counseling, Social Emotional Learning
Pause and focus on impulse control with a collection of SEL worksheets and activities. With an emphasis on executive functioning skills and self-awareness, this resource uses metaphors and analogies to help students understand that their actions may have unintended impacts.
5. Make growth-focused goals
In a classroom that embraces a growth mindset, understanding emotions is key to achieving students’ goals. Self-regulation plays an essential role in reaching these goals, as difficulty with anxiety-provoking or stressful situations may hinder students’ progress. Conversely, self-regulated students use their emotional awareness to find success in the classroom.
Consider these growth-focused goals for students working on self-regulation:
- I can find a self-regulation strategy that works for me when I’m emotional.
- I can find my emotional responses in my body and take steps to calm down.
- I can talk to my teacher or peers about my emotions without raising my voice.
- I can identify when I’m about to become dysregulated and find a way to calm down.
If a student’s IEP or 504 plan includes emotional regulation goals, discuss them with the student and regularly check in to track their progress.
Let students know when they’re making positive progress
Have your students demonstrated remarkable progress this year? Offer them the recognition they deserve with resources that let students know you’ve noticed their hard work and development throughout the school year.
Growth Mindset Positive Notes
By: Cara’s Creative Playground
Grades: K-3rd
Subjects: Any
Students love receiving positive notes from their teacher! Print a set of cheerful notes with encouraging feedback to give to students when they’re working toward their goals. You can also personalize the text to make each note more meaningful.
6. Draw your happy place
For some students, envisioning themselves in a less stressful environment than school or the classroom can assist with self-regulation. Designate this as their “Happy Place” and encourage students to focus on it during emotionally charged moments at school.
Have children name and describe their Happy Place, which could be their room, a museum, the library, the playground, or another area where they feel minimal stress or anxiety. They can then draw their Happy Place to reference during dysregulated moments, either displayed on the wall, tucked into a Calm Down Corner, or kept in a convenient location like their desk or backpack.
For younger students or those with fine motor delays, use photographs of their Happy Place for them to view. You can also include pictures of loved ones or favorite toys in a collage.
7. Take a dance break
Dancing brings joy to the whole body! Encourage students to self-regulate and connect their emotional and physical feelings through dance breaks in the classroom.
Perfect for both whole-class regulation and individual stressful moments, a dance break lightens the mood while allowing students to release tension. Encourage students to try dance moves that target stress points in their bodies, such as tense arms, kicking legs, or an upset stomach.
Let students create a playlist of upbeat “self-regulation songs” that lift their spirits regardless of the situation, reserving these songs for emotional moments.
8. Step outside for a moment
Fresh air can be a crucial element in self-regulation strategies for kids. Encourage students needing extra calming time to step outside, get a drink of water, or take a short walk around the building.
If students might elope, have an aide or paraeducator accompany them outside for a walk. Students who become dysregulated with excessive sensory input may also choose to close the door behind them if the classroom is noisy.
Enhance an outdoor moment with breathing exercises to amplify the benefits of fresh air.
9. Practice positive self-talk
Being kind to oneself is an essential part of self-regulation skills. Students who frequently become dysregulated may have internalized negative messages about themselves, leading to further emotional dysregulation. Positive self-talk can replace negative thoughts or overwhelming emotions with calming mantras, reframed thoughts, or compassionate quotes they’ve practiced earlier.
Introduce these affirmations to students who need positive self-talk:
- I am in control.
- My thoughts are not in control.
- I am doing a good job.
- I can manage my feelings.
- Feelings aren’t forever.
- I am safe and loved.
What is self-regulation?
Self-regulation is the ability to calm oneself during a heightened or stressful emotional situation. Initial self-regulation skills involve coping mechanisms and immediate solutions for managing emotional responses, while more advanced strategies enable individuals to control their emotions before reaching heightened states.
In the classroom, self-regulation benefits autistic students, those with ADHD, special needs students, and mainstream students. Research indicates that self-regulation can enhance class engagement, providing more students access to learning and improving academic performance. Students who self-regulate emotions also enjoy better peer relationships and demonstrate enhanced self-esteem and self-regard.
Tips for Stopping Dysregulation Before it Starts
Experienced teachers understand that preventing dysregulation in the classroom is the best approach. A calm classroom benefits students with high emotional needs, mainstream students, and teachers alike. Recognizing dysregulation signs ensures a positive classroom environment for everyone.
Employ these strategies to remain aware of student emotions before self-regulation becomes necessary:
- Monitor student behavior. If a student appears more irritable or sensitive than usual, anticipate a potential emotional episode.
- Understand student triggers. Students triggered by sensory input, peer interactions, control dynamics, or challenging classwork require early intervention in these situations.
- Check in with students frequently. For those struggling with self-regulation, knowing an adult cares about their emotional well-being can be highly effective.
- Limit conflicts. Keep students who often have conflicts separate or, if possible, on different schedules.
- Give lots of daily choices. Providing choices prevents students from feeling the teacher has all the control, reducing the likelihood of acting out to regain control.
Use self-regulation strategies to help kids feel safe
When students face stress, anxiety, and strong emotions, it can be overwhelming. Teachers can support their students through these moments with self-regulation strategies, empowering students to develop their skills and fostering a safer, success-oriented classroom environment for everyone. Explore additional self-regulation resources for students in special education or mainstream classrooms and discover the tranquility that comes when everyone feels understood and valued.
