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Emotional Regulation

Safety and Connection

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SAFETY AND CONNECTION

As we continue to break down and share with you the way Explore and Soar supports our clients and families in our year of ‘self-awareness and growth’, it’s only fitting that after having dived into our continuity support plans and parent coaching strategies, we address the topic of ‘safety and connection’ with you. 

Upon reflection and after reviewing a large amount of continued professional development over the years as a practitioner, one valuable skill set remains a constant. This integral part of development is always discussed at the beginning of each theory or model for paediatrics. It is the ultimate foundational skill required for us as human beings in order to begin our journey of  overall development; from infant > toddler > child > preteen > teenager > adult. 

These skills are safety and connection. 

The premise being, no developmental milestone or emotional and social skills can be obtained optimally without the foundations of safety & connection. 

Establishing a sense of safety and security is essential to all stages of development, with connection following this. 

As occupational therapists when working with our clients and families, we begin by establishing what safety looks like for each family, in order to use our therapeutic practices in the most efficient and successful manner. Before any goals can be targeted or reached, it is essential for a sense of safety and security to be built between our client and their therapist. 

As a therapist when working with families, to be able to identify their strengths, boundaries and what makes them feel most secure allows for adaptive intervention methods. When this occurs, there is a natural sense of relief and sense of calm that is not only beneficial for our parents and caregivers but with our children as well. If there is no sense of safety between the clinician and parent/caregiver, then the safety the child will feel with the therapist can be altered, impacting all therapy intervention and a child’s ability to achieve their desired goals and skills in regards to development. 

Safety and connection work simultaneously. 

Connection is a feeling. It is often described as the way in which someone unconsciously connects to another’s energy and then interacts with your own. Think about when you meet someone for the first time. With some people there is a sense of calm and connection straight away, like you have known them your whole life. But then others can also have the opposite effect, with a great sense of disconnection. These feelings are our internal navigation system that helps determine whether we are feeling safe and connected or whether there is a potential threat to our sense of safety. Acknowledging these feelings then allows us to make a choice on how to respond. 

Personally, many of my decisions as an adult, especially in work have been navigated by my sense of safety and connection. I wanted to provide the support that I didn’t have growing up in a small rural town. I want to provide the knowledge, research and intervention strategies that I have learned over my lifetime to families in order to enhance their sense of safety and connection, especially in our remote areas that lack greater levels of support. At the heart of my why is relationships. And establishing Explore and Soar as a safe and connected space for our families is paramount. 

Ensuring that your children feel a consistent sense of safety and connection is what allows them to evolve and grow as a human.  

Connection is established from birth, however due to individual differences for each child, parent and/or caregiver we all have different ways of establishing these connections or different individual reasons as to why some of us may have difficulty establishing connections.  

Connection is the foundation to any relationship and is paramount for all of us as humans to feel connected. The bond between parent and child from birth is where this all begins. A model that we use within Explore and Soar is the DIR Model (Developmental Individual Differences Relationships-Based Model originally developed by Dr. Stanley Greenspan) which allows us to work on providing strategies, interventions through parent coaching and relationship approaches to help our parents and children obtain a healthy parent-child connection. 

We seek to support the development of these skills in order to allow your children to enhance their own skills through a model of “Shared Attention and Regulation” – being the foundational pillar. 

It has been extremely exciting for us to explore the recent research addressing more specific developmental skills in relation to connection. These skills contribute to the beginning of development and enhance the child’s relationships and connectedness to both parent and self, ultimately allowing for future emotional and social development to occur.

So how do we as humans actually establish connectedness? 

We establish this through;

  • Mutual gaze – visually connecting in face to face interactions for connection of shared emotions which is foundational and earlier than shared attention (joint attention), through games with parent and child (Rollins, De Froy, Campbell, & Hoffman, 2021). 
  • Unconscious mimicry (shared actions), is linked to movement and body synchrony, outlining the importance of rhythmicity with movement, mirroring body language to connect to others (Peper, Van Der Wal & Begeer, 2016).
  • Synchrony – shared social timing, known as timed relationships, some examples include predictable rhythms of mother for baby to connect with such as heart rate, respiration, reciprocity (tone) of voice, sleep/wake cycles and an ability to have an interactive and rhythmic flow of interaction to connect the parent and child’s emotional state to match (foundations of co-regulation and regulation) (Feldman, 2007). 

These established skills result in a parent child synchronicity and connectedness, reinforcing the sense of safety as outlined above and supporting overall emotional skill development.

I personally love working within this field because you can learn so many different models of support and expand your intervention approach and strategies for all children, as no child is ever the same. As I continue to work in this field, I have begun to see each model overlap and support one another.

Safety and connection is vital in building the foundations to co-regulation and regulation. It greatly impacts social development which we will be discussing in greater detail next month.

Articles

Geller, S. (2018). Therapeutic Presence and Polyvagal Theory: Principles and Practices for Cultivating Effective Therapeutic Relationships. From Porges and Dana (2018) Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory: The Emergence of Polyvagal-Informed Therapies. New York: WW Norton 

Feldman, R. (2007). Parent–infant synchrony and the construction of shared timing; physiological precursors, developmental outcomes, and risk conditions. Journal of Child psychology and Psychiatry, 48(3-4), 329-354. 

Peper, C. L. E., van der Wal, S. J., & Begeer, S. (2016). Autism in action: reduced bodily connectedness during social interactions?. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 1862. 

Rollins, P. R., De Froy, A., Campbell, M., & Hoffman, R. T. (2021). Mutual gaze: An active ingredient for social development in toddlers with ASD: A randomized control trial. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 51(6), 1921-1938.

Until next time,
Jess

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MARCH 3, 2022

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School Readiness

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SCHOOL READINESS

Another month gone! That means that 2022 is fast approaching us. And with a new year, comes a new group of children and their families making the scary and exciting transition into ‘big school!’


Transitioning into the primary school setting can be a tricky time for lots of children. It is a very exciting period, filled with new friends, new teachers and new activities. But it can also be a stressful time, as there is a lot of change in our routines, structures and expectations within every day. It is important that we support our children to make a happy, supported and successful transition into ‘big school’.

School readiness skills are about more than just reading, writing and maths. It is easy to get caught up on these details, wanting our kids to be proficient in basic handwriting, counting, or even being able to identify letters and words. It is however, really important to look at the whole picture and holistically support our children to build all of the smaller less recognised skills that will support them in achieving success in Kindergarten.

School readiness refers to the foundational skills that support a child’s body, mind and wellbeing as they transition into the primary school environment. 

The first thing to remember when starting the transition to school, is that your child is going to school to continue to learn and develop their skills such as reading, writing and maths. These are not skills that they are expected to be perfect at on their first day. However, there are lots of activities and tasks that children will be expected to independently perform when they start Kindergarten. These range from self-care skills, to fine and gross motor skills, and even social and play skills. 

Let’s start by thinking about the self-care skills that a child needs to be able to independently complete within an average school day. They will need to be able to dress themselves in their school uniform at the start of the day, undress/dress to go to the bathroom at school, and undress at the end of the school day. School uniforms often have buttons, zips, shoelaces and even ties depending on the school you are attending. Children will be expected to be able to go to the toilet independently without supervision during the school day. At lunch and recess breaks children will be expected to open and close their own lunch boxes, unwrap snacks and packaging such as chip packets, zip-lock bags, drink bottles and lids.

Developing a child’s fine motor skills is another important step in preparing them for success in school. For the transition to school, focus on building basic foundational skills such as being able to open and close a school bag. Teacher’s may expect that children can hold a pencil and use it to write their own name, draw a person, form pre-writing shapes (vertical line, horizontal line, circle, x, diagonal line), and colour in an up to down and circular motion. Other skills that will be explored are holding and using scissors to cut paper and gluing for arts and craft. 

Another important skill set to support the transition to school, will be a child’s use of gross motor skills. I’m not talking about being able to play a full game of team sports such as soccer or netball but it is important that our kids are able to safely play on playground equipment and participate in common childhood games such as tips, hopscotch, hide and seek or bullrush. Age-appropriate gross motor skills for children transitioning to school include running, jumping with two feet, hopping on one foot, skipping and balancing. It is also important for children to have developed core strength and postural stability for use within the classroom so that they are able to sit cross legged on the mat for floor time, as well as sit in their chair at the desk for extended periods of time while they complete activities. 

Children learn and develop the majority of their foundational skills through ‘play’. Therefore, it is so important that our children transitioning into the school environment have developed social and play skills such as shared attention and engagement with peers. Children aged 4 years and older are expected to engage in ‘cooperative play’. This means that a child will play with other children, showing interest in both toys or the activity, as well as the other children or child they are playing with. At this age it is also expected that children will engage in pretend play themes and making use of their imagination within play. Further social skills that will be expected in the school environment include sharing, turn-taking, patience and whole body listening skills.

A skill that you might not have considered yet, but is imperative for success in the school environment is a child’s emotional regulation skills. This refers to a child’s ability to find and maintain the level of arousal in which they are able to best engage in the world around them. Think about whether your child can maintain and adapt their own emotions, behaviour and arousal appropriately to suit the activity and situation at hand. For example, if a child is playing a new exciting game, do they get over-excited and silly to the point that they are no longer able to engage in the game? Or, do they become angry or upset because the activity is too challenging for them and they don’t know how to ask for help? Additionally, can the child recover from heightened emotions such as anger or frustration, in an appropriate manner and time frame> All of these situations refer to emotional regulation skills and need to be developed for a successful transition to school. 

Lastly, let’s talk about our child’s ability to cope with and manage transitions themselves. The transition to school is a big one, but along with this there are many other smaller transitions to consider. These transitions begin early in the day from waking up and getting ready for school, to leaving home for school, being in the playground with friends, moving into the classroom for morning period, and so on and so forth throughout the day with lunch break, home time, ect. School days are very routine and structured, and children are expected to learn and follow these routines. Challenges that come with these transitions can be as simple as having to go to the toilet at a set time, rather than just going whenever you need to at home; only having a certain amount of time to eat your lunch; or moving back into the classroom appropriately after an exciting play break. 

Some children may still be having difficulties achieving success or independence in any one or group of these skills. This increases their risk of falling behind their peers and having to play ‘catch up’ or requiring additional support to be put into place to achieve success.  Therefore, it is immensely important that we support these children by actively facilitating the necessary skills for school readiness throughout pre-school.. 

If you’d like to help your child develop their school readiness skills, here are some ideas that you can do at home together. Often the repetition of everyday activities is a simple yet effective helping hand! Practice is key!

  • Encourage your child to open their own snacks and containers.
  • Encourage your child to start drinking out of a water bottle.
  • Encourage your child to be responsible for their own items, packing them, and then packing them away. 
  • Follow a morning and evening routine to support your child’s ability to understand and follow structures. This can be supported by the use of a visual schedule of ordered pictures of each step that needs to be performed. 
  • Support transitions within the home with the use of a visual and/or auditory timer to mimic the bell system used within schools and support your child’s understanding of time, space and transitions. 
  • Practice with your child getting dressed and undressed with their school uniform once you have bought it. 
  • Practice and role-play the drop-off and pick-up routine ahead of time. Also discuss and role-play changes in routine and unexpected events i.e., somebody else picking them up. 
  • Engage your child in arts and craft activities at home. Use pencils, crayons, paints, string and beads, scissors and glue to create masterpieces together. 
  • Encourage your child to participate in colouring in activities, tic-tac, toe, mazes, colouring in, dot to dots, etc. 
  • Engage your child in card and board games that will teach them turn taking, sharing, and problem solving skills. 
  • Play and create obstacle courses within the home to practice your child’s movement and gross motor skills. Include jumping, balancing and hopping. 
  • Teach and expose your child to common group games such as tips, hide and seek, bullrush etc. 
  • Facilitate safe social encounters with similar aged children for your child to practice play and social skills with. 
  • Support your child to identify their emotions and explore and practice different ways to calm their body when in a heightened state of arousal. For example, practice deep breathing, drinking cold water, movement breaks or other tricks that work for them as an individual. 

As Occupational Therapists, we also facilitate the development of all of the aforementioned skills through our one-on-one therapy intervention sessions, home programming and our school holiday ‘BIG School STARS’ transition to school group which Explore and Soar run in the January School Holidays. If you have concerns about any of the skills discussed in this post, just ask your therapist and they can help you best support your child to achieve the success they deserve at big school. We also have a transition to school activity handout on our website, click the link here to view and download it, to help with all the activities ahead over the next couple of months.

By supporting our children to build these foundational skills, we are giving them the tools and skills that they need to not only achieve success at big school, but to have the best time while doing it!

Until next time,
Georgia

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 3, 2021

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Auditory Intervention

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AUDITORY INTERVENTION

As part of working as an occupational therapist, and under sensory processing integration, we work with all of the 8 sensory systems. 

One of these is the auditory system. The auditory system is complex and many other sensory systems are connected to it as a multisensory functioning organ.  

So What is Auditory Processing?  

Auditory processing is the process of recognising and responding to auditory input. Auditory processing refers to the ability to discriminate between similar sounds, tune into a parent, teacher or friend to pick up important information, in order to communicate effectively with others. There are multiple skills linked to auditory processing including memory, sequencing, development of expressive and receptive language, academic skills such as association of sounds with letters or numbers, listening skills, communication skills, social skills, and maintaining attention.  One of the greatest skills needed is the ability to differentiate sounds.  Our ears are developed to interpret the different frequencies of sounds a world presents us. The frequency (Hertz- Hz) of sound is then determined by the way in which sound waves vibrate whilst travelling through our ear. Once sound waves reach our ear, they cause the membranes within to vibrate at varying intensities, causing the activation of certain musculature of the ear, which then allows us to hear!  There are varying frequencies such as:  

Low Frequency sounds (1000 Hz and below): This sound activates the outer ear muscles, moving slow as it passes through. This includes sounds like: 

  • Dog’s barking
  • Lawn mowers
  • Thunder
  • Vacuum cleaners 

Middle Frequency sounds (1000-3000 Hz): This sound activates the middle ear and where language and social skill development is primarily processed.

High Frequency sounds (3000Hz and above): This sound activates our inner ear, moving hard and fast as it passes through. This includes sounds such as: 

  • Women’s voices
  • Birds chirping

Challenges in Auditory Processing

Difficulties arise when the brain does not effectively or accurately interpret and respond to auditory information. This creates misinterpretation of information. 

There are two forms of difficulties with auditory processing: 

Hypersensitivity to sounds (Auditory Defensiveness) 

This is a child who is overwhelmed by auditory input and may present with the following: 

  • Easily distracted by sounds not noticed by others (clocks, fans, air conditioners)
  • Disliking sound of vacuums, hair dryers
  • Startled or distracted by loud or unexpected sounds- running away, crying, covers ears.
  • Frequently attempted to control sounds in their environment (asking people to stop talking)
  • Refusing to go to busy/ noisy places

Hyposensitivity to sounds (Under Registration) 

This is a child who does not easily register auditory information in his environment and may present with the following:

  • Does not respond to verbal cues or own name
  • Loves loud music or TV
  • Loves to make sounds or noises
  • Difficulty understanding or remembering what was said
  • Talks to self when completing a task
  • Needing directions repeated

At Explore and Soar, we are dedicated to understanding these sensory systems, determining ways to integrate and apply intervention approaches that alleviate these concerns. To do so, we engage in continued professional development and collaborative reasoning sessions with our senior OT’s.

There are many auditory interventions that can be supplemented into your sensory diet or OT home programming routine, presently at Explore and Soar, we utilise two intervention types; Therapeutic Listening and Quickshifts. In addition to these we have other auditory training and supports, which are tailored to each individual client where appropriate. 

Contact our OT’s to find out more information or  to see how we can help you. We will tailor an appropriate auditory intervention solution for your child. 

From a personal perspective, when I’m feeling like my mind is scattered or overwhelmed, I put on one of our quickshifts that emphasise the lower frequency sounds in order to ground me, to feel safe and to slow my heartbeat.

If I’m feeling slow, I’ll put on a track with shifts of high and low tones, and varying rhythms to invite movement to my muscles to activate and boost my energy levels to get going. 

When i’m really needing to concentrate and get work done, i’ll put on music with a constant rhythmic sound, that holds my attention in one space, it provides intensity with high and low sounds, with a fast but constant and non changing rhythm to allow my body to sync with the music and work to that speed. 

Our families at Explore and Soar know we love to put on music in sessions to add as much support to our kids intervention as possible. Whether it be through speakers or headphones, the impacts to the child’s regulation, engagement, social skills and communication is amazing to see. Some examples of these include:

Child one: A young boy who has high levels of energy. One of his biggest challenges was sharing space, regulation and holding attention to share engagement for more than 5 minutes. When putting on the QS space, you could instantly see the change in his body. He slowed his body and movements, he took a deep breath and paused. The music gave him time and space, it give him the support he needed, prompting safety and regulation. 

Child two: An overwhelmed child. He has challenges moving and communicating with others around him, to follow the lead of others, to transition between environments and settle enough for sleep. With persistence, through each day of our 5 day intensives, little by little, the boy that started the week was a completely different child by the end of the week. He stayed in the room for the whole 50 minutes, he could regulate and move through the changing of ideas, he shared eye contact, laughs and we beautifully transitioned out of the session with no crying or frustrations. 

Child three: With a confident personality, she loves to be in control of the things around her. She does so with constant attempts to change the activities that are new or tricky, tensing her body to try and stabilise movement or completely avoiding an activity all together if it means using both sides of her body together. Music had an instant effect on her body. She began to use both her left and right hand together during sit down fine motor tasks. The music prompted a huge smile and by moving with the rhythm of the music, she gracefully challenged herself throughout the activities.

Auditory processing is such an integral part of development. If you think your child may need some auditory interventions, please don’t hesitate to reach out and see how we can help!

Until next time,
Maddie

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

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Health Promotion for our Families

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HEALTH PROMOTION FOR OUR FAMILIES

As occupational therapists we are trained to provide support to all our clients and their families, in order to increase their independence, grow their confidence and to live a happy and healthy life. 

More often than not, this is first done or activated when someone is starting to experience discomfort or challenges in certain areas of their life. For our children, self-care, play, schooling and their social interactions with their peers are where areas of concern often arise. As we’ve spoken about previously, when these challenges occur, they manifest in behaviours. For our children, the way in which they behave is in fact their method of asking for help. They are in turn telling us as adults, that something internally doesn’t feel right and they require extra help. It is then our role to determine what is going on and how we can provide effective support. 

But what if we could actually reduce these areas of concern and the amount of worry that comes along with them but being proactive rather than reactive? 

This is an area that as occupational therapists we are so very passionate about. Through health promotion we can bring awareness, education and support to all families and communities about child development, patterns to look out for and access to support services when you have questions. This should be readily accessible to every person in each of their communities. By having access to services that offer advice and support, promoting health and wellness for both the parent/carer and their child, inadvertently increases well being and reduces the risk of mental health. 

From an OT perspective; the definition of health promotion from the World Health Organisation is “the process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health. To reach a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, an individual or group must be able to identify and realise aspirations, to satisfy needs, to change or cope with the environment. Health is, therefore, seen as a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasising social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities. Therefore, health promotion is not just the responsibility of the health sector, but goes beyond health lifestyles to well-being.” (1986, para.2). 

Something that we do as a company outside of providing intervention strategies and support to our clients and their families, is also providing them with a range of essential health promotion strategies to positively influence, empower and educate in order to further reduce the inequalities in our health industry. Therefore, significantly supporting positive interactions and emotional connections in our client’s support networks. 

Each of our OT’s provide strategies and supports to our clients, such as:

  • Teaching positive ways for your child to move their body that feels good for them, to increase control and awareness.
  • Teaching them to feel safe and comfortable sharing their emotions and sitting within their feelings.
  • Providing as many possible positive social interactions with other peers who are presented with similar challenges in group program settings.
  • Conducting skill based training for self-care so that children can be successful on school camps or overnight trips.
  • Teaching your child how to plan, organise and sequence activities or thoughts together, to help with positive inclusion in school – this makes them feel clever, smart, successful and allows them realise their worth. 
  • Providing strategies and support to be successful and confident in navigating their local communities.

Additionally, each of our OT’s provide strategies and supports to our clients parents/caregiver’s such as:

  • Providing connections and relationships within the Explore and soar family; other families, clients or health professionals.
  • Taking into account every parent’s well-being when working with their children, giving them emotional support, and interventions that are based both on the child and the parent, so as not to overwhelm and contribute to more stress.
  • Running parent groups, where like minded parents are present to talk about their own situations, so that they feel heard and they are able to build connections around them without feeling isolated, increasing their support network outside of health professionals.
  • Utilising parent coaching strategies to teach them how to do the interventions; positively reshaping their confidence in order to be able to manage all aspects of their lives with their children. 

Within Explore and Soar, we support and provide strategies to our local communities for health promotion such as:

  • Education nights at preschools for the parents and their educators. This is a regular offering as a part of our service to build awareness and health promotion for development – it’s one of the most consistent things we do. 
  • Work within our local schools; teacher professional development courses that support them in the classroom and the playground. This differs from early education nights, as rather than identifying areas of concern at a younger age, it’s more about working with difficulties that have already been identified and enveloping the right strategies.
  • Remaining very community orientated by sponsoring and supporting sporting events or team members. We do so, so that the community knows there is a point of access, that if information or support is needed, there is a place to ask questions. We always seeking to create a presence in the community to bridge the gap and get people openly talking about behaviour, emotion or social skills.
  • Promoting safe access within the community, so as to eliminate anxiety and stress.

This brings us to an exciting event happening at the end of this month in support of the Hunter Region! We are participating in the Hunter Disability Expo this May! We participate in local expos in the community to bridge the gap and bring awareness to the support that is offered.

The Hunter Disability Expo is open to anyone that would like to attend and it is on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd May at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre. 

Participants get to see all the different supports and companies within the Hunter that offer assistance to our kids, all the way through to adulthood, from allied health professionals to general support services. 

On a personal note, growing up, this level of awareness, education and events to support our local communities and families simply weren’t available. This is often still the case in our regional communities. So participating in events like this to share with others within a safe space, is and will always continue to be a passion of mine. 

So, if you have time and want to see us and many other local health professionals, join us at the Hunter Disability Expo and don’t be afraid to say Hi! We would love to see you there. 

Until next time,
Jess

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MAY 5, 2021

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The Emotional Continuum

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THE EMOTIONAL CONTINUUM

Emotions; the one thing that many people find hard to acknowledge, understand and express freely. 

Yet they are the one thing that binds us together. They are a constant in out lives, changing as we navigate through day to day life. Our emotions live on a continuum and on any given day we eb and flow between them. 

At Explore and Soar, we describe this by using the terms optimal band of arousal and window of tolerance. Each allow us as humans to function optimally on any given day, to be able to maintain a home and  hold down a steady job as adults. For our children, being able to participate in everyday self-care activities, maintain engagement at school for learning and be flexible and dynamic in their thinking and feelings when socialising and playing with peers, is obtained when their optimal band of arousal is reached. 

There are many everyday functions and aspects of our lives that are relying on us to live in our optimal band of arousal, in order to attend and achieve these expectations. However, this is not always achievable and on any given day, our body and minds experience a range of emotions from our internal and external environments. When this happens, our ability to remain in an optimal band of arousal is not always achievable. Instead, we start moving on the emotional continuum either into a high arousal state of survival with responses of fight, flight, fright or freeze where an array of emotions and behaviours can become apparent or alternatively into a low arousal state where fatigue, tiredness or sickness can become apparent. 

Our ability to move consistently on the emotional continuum is guided by natural and unique instincts. 

By doing so, our body is expressing how we are feeling in the moment by telling our mind and body to respond in a particular way. As an example, if we are beginning to feel overwhelmed and stressed, moving into a heightened state, we are required to slow down to allow our body to rest. We can all become unstuck in this state from time to time, when we have difficulty regulating our emotions appropriately and being able to respond to our internal and external environment in an appropriate way, such as size of problem vs reaction. This is where the foundational emotional regulation skills of co-regulation from a young age and the development of self-regulation capacities is fundamental in supporting our children, but also enhances our adaptability and flexibility in all situations when we are older.

Take a look at our previous blog on co-regulation and self-regulation strategies >

In everyday life, if a child is expressing themselves with an action or emotion, that is their way of asking for help. As social beings we do not like expressing ourselves in a way that is perceived to be out of the norm, yet when things are not going ok for young children, their way of and asking for help is through emotive behaviour. As adults it is our job to be role models, provide support and teach them how to express their emotions appropriately. We must offer support to them as they move through these feelings, whilst trying to understand the situation at hand. That’s not always easy. Sometimes we as adults alone are unable to figure it out. This is where we as occupational therapists working within emotional regulation and sensory processing capacities can come in and help, to further breakdown what is going on, determine what is impacting our children and to determine the best strategy to support them in their daily experiences, on their own individual emotional continuum.

As occupational therapists there are a range of strategies and intervention options that we can do to support your whole family in better understanding each other’s emotional continuum. 

Our ultimate goal is to work successfully through everyday activities and allow you and your children to live your life to the fullest.  

Regulation strategies: As occupational therapists we can determine where each individual’s band of arousal sits on the emotional continuum. Once identified, we develop goals and implement strategies to support increased time in optimal throughout the day. Goals and strategies are targeting the development of co-regulation strategies with parents/caregivers and loved ones, self-regulation strategies and increasing the independence in identifying how your body is feeling and reacting, then completing strategies to calm, additionally reducing the time frame and recovery time if their emotions heighten. These are all powerful approaches to supporting our children in order to be successful in everyday activities. 

Take a look at our previous blog on co-regulation and self-regulation strategies >

Sensory processing activities: Utilising our individual sensory needs helps facilitate and develop regulation and achievement in maintaining an optimal band of arousal. Well known strategies such as heavy work, respiration and roughhousing strategies can be quick sensory activities in your everyday life in order to facilitate this. Over the years we have written about the benefits of all these strategies and you’ll see them regularly in our social media posts. This is because the benefits are paramount. This is also why you will see us in sessions working with our children with things like whistles, utilising oral motor strategies to support the development of skills, and individualised heavy work strategies (movement with resistance such as push, pull, lift, carry) to help achieve these outcomes. 

TRE (Trauma Release Exercises): Known as trauma release exercises are a simple yet innovative series of exercises that assist in the body in releasing deep muscular patterns of stress, tension and trauma. TRE can be implemented through an active way of exercises that activate the natural reflex mechanism of shaking or vibrating that releases muscular tension, required for calming down the nervous system. I have been utilising this strategy as a self-regulation and self-care tool for myself consistently since 2013. Due to the extreme benefits of TRE and my own love of it I then studied his intervention approach and have completed my qualification in 2018-2019 to become a trained trainer. Since then, I have been implementing these strategies within our sessions with our children where needed through a passive, non-invasive and safe way. This strategy has been successfully implemented with adults and children in altering their band of optimal arousal and increasing their control and confidence in sitting in the emotional continuum. Do not hesitate to seek further knowledge and information from us on this method.

Cognitive emotional strategies: When working on the emotional continuum, sometimes using sensory processing and bottom up strategies are effective, but can be complimentary providing top down cognitive strategies to assist in the refinement of knowledge and applying these skills in social situations or transfer these skills in everyday environments, including home, school (classroom and playground), and the community. Some strategies you will see us utilising in sessions are concepts of ‘Zones of Regulation’, ‘Size of Problem vs Reaction’, ‘The Alert Program’, ‘The Incredible Flexible You Series’ and ‘The Social Thinking Detectives’. These strategies for us are generally used once the development of the above mentioned skills have been supporting each individual’s emotional continuum and then building these skills on top of. 

As a team we are always building our knowledge and exploring further strategies and intervention approaches to enhance our children’s emotional capacities and independence. Ultimately we are all learning to understand and identify their emotions on a daily basis. The emotional continuum is so important to us as it allows our children to build their confidence, self-worth, self-awareness and to develop strong foundational blocks in order to achieve success in their life. Don’t hesitate to chat to us further about how we can support you and your children with their emotional regulation capacities. 

Until next time,
Jess

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MARCH 3, 2021

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