When life gets too busy, it’s easy for your sensory child to experience overwhelm. Many kids brains are stressed out and overwhelmed.
You know the moments, it’s the moments that, as a parent, you can tell that your child’s brain is right on the edge. Very much like their brain is just ready to explode. You can feel it coming.
So, let’s figure out how to limit this explosiveness. Or perhaps your child shuts down when they feel overwhelmed. Exploding and shutting down are two sides of the same coin.
3 Tips That Make The Biggest Difference When Life Gets Too Busy
The 3 tips that make the biggest difference in your child’s ability to manage their emotions are:
1. Space
Giving your child space. To give them space means to limit confrontation.
When kids have a short-fuse, it means that they are living in a constant state of stress. They’re already on the edge and they can’t handle very much additional stressors like confrontation.
Perhaps when the ‘boiling over’ happens, you as the parent can say something like,
“I understand you’re upset. Why don’t you sit right here (or go over there) for a little bit, and when you’re done getting upset, you can come talk to me.”
This will help their life and your relationship with them. You’re helping, teaching, and training them to be able to become aware of their emotions and behaviors.
This gives them the space that they need to think without feeling attacked and without having to be defensive.
2. Activity
Kids brains are fueled by activity.
Many kids sit around on screens now. Screens irritate the brain in their own way and we’ll talk about that another day. What we’re concerned with today is the lack of activity when a child is on a screen.
When they’re on a screen, they’re not actually moving very much. Without movement, the brain has a hard time knowing what’s really going on.
The brain is fed by the sensory system. The sensory system is the system that takes in information from the world around us through our senses.
Without movement, the brain has a hard time knowing where it is in space. The brain is then uncomfortable and unable to relax.Movement actually, neurologically, relaxes the brain.
Encourage movement for your child. Especially at this time before school starts and they are having to be inside for long periods of time.
3. Encouragement
We see this all the time in our office and it is probably one of the greatest influences on how fast a kid heals.
We’ve all had that boss that just beats us down. That has expectations we could never reach. And keeps telling us what we’re doing wrong all the time. Certainly isn’t telling us what we’ve done right.
Simple things like, “Wow, you’re doing such a great job!”
“You’re so smart!”
Or, “You’re really talented at this!”
“You did such a good job the way you put this together.”
Or “You did such a great job the way you handled that situation!”
When we have people encouraging us, we want to help them, to serve them, to follow their instructions. We want to be better.
The relationship that this creates between you and your child will instantly reduce the level of stress they feel. The beautiful thing is that as you encourage your child, it will reduce your level of stress as well.
When life gets too busy, and your sensory child struggles, it’s easy to get anxious. Hopefully, these three simple tips will help you as you parent and give peace of mind.
On the other hand, if an overwhelmed and angry child is an issue that you continually struggle with and feel overwhelmed – come see us. We want your child to have a functional sensory system with a relaxed brain that can rest, grow and develop like it is designed to do.