Breathing Star

When children are upset/anxious/worked up we encourage them to take a deeeeeeeep breath. This deep breath stimulates their parasympathetic nervous system and redirects blood flow away from their amygdala (the security guard of your brain that is in charge of your “fight, flight, or freeze” reaction) and to their prefrontal cortex (the wise old owl of the brain). This is especially helpful with older toddlers and young preschoolers. However, there can be a few speed bumps in having young children breath deep. First, two and three year olds won’t naturally take full, deep, belly breaths. Second, children this age are very concrete thinkers making it hard for them to visualize what it means to take deep breaths and concentrate on doing it. There are ways to help them gain all the benefits from deep belly breathing and one of these ways is through using “cue cards”. As an example of this here is a Breathing Star! Work with your children to slowly trace the sides of the star. As their fingers move along the sides of the star, have them breathe in and out the whole time their finger is moving. This helps them to both elongate their breath and stay focused on their breathing. Try it out!