Balloon technique helps children relax

lorennys (67)in #steemeducation • 5 years ago

The balloon technique is a very effective strategy to promote the relaxation of children to regulate their emotions and allow them to develop a greater body awareness. It is a simple resource in which children can begin at 7 years of age, and with which they will gradually improve their emotional intelligence.

None of us wants to see our children taken by their frustration, from the attacks of anger in which they sink into the most extravagant tantrums, in the most desperate crisis cries. However, after two years, it is quite common for their emotional universes, still unknown to them, to be the object of family problems and tensions.

"The prolonged emotional tension can serve as an obstacle to the intellectual faculties of the child and, thus, hinder their ability to learn." - Daniel Goleman.-

Now, there is a fact that we must not lose sight of. Our goal as parents, mothers or educators is not to eliminate all the focus of anxiety in the child's life. It is not logical nor recommended to open the way completely so that your day to day is always rewarding and adjusted to your expectations; The world, as we already know, does not work that way. The key is to provide them with the tools so they can control their anxiety, anger or sadness for themselves.

The ball technique for children is a unique, fun and incredibly useful tool that will be of great help for this purpose. Next, let's see what it consists of.

Source

Respect the emotions of the child without promoting anxiety

Often, children use crying, screaming and tantrums as the only known characteristic to cope with what they do not like or cause them anxiety. Far from despair, far from further intensifying the situation with shouting, censure or punishment, we must put ourselves in the place of the little ones, and more specifically, in their brains.

The cerebral cortex has a slow but progressive maturation. This implies that, in general, behaviors such as impulse control and emotional control are not completed until after adolescence. It is a long period in which there are many individual differences. There will be children able to better manage their emotional world and children more demanding, inept and sensitive to the processes of anxiety.

Knowing this, having these clear concepts will be very useful. Therefore, it is mainly about being empathetic with them, understanding their frustrations and anger, but also assuming that validating an emotion does not mean agreeing with it. It is recognizing its existence, but knowing how to offer tools to the child so that she understands it, leads with it and manages it. So the children balloon technique is a good starting point, a very useful tool after 7 years.

Source

How does this technique work to promote the relaxation of children?

This is a practice to teach children to relax and control their impulses. It can be applied when children feel nervous or angry. Therefore, they will be able to control, maintain calm, stimulate their psychomotor skills and develop body awareness, posture and the use of hands.

What do we need?

In order to start the balloon technique, in terms of conditions and material, we need the following:

We need a balloon for the child. If we make this dynamic in a classroom, we will try to make the environment comfortable, spacious and without many stimuli.
In the classroom there should be no mats or carpets so that at a given time, the children can go to bed.
Remember that offering a balloon for a child under the age of 7 can be dangerous.

What is the technique?

To apply it, you must follow the following steps:

We are not going to offer the balloon to the child without first explaining what that dynamic is, this game.
What we are going to do is explain to them in a simple way, so that our body reacts in a very special way when we let tension and emotions like anger, anger or frustration in control.
Once we have explained this, we can deliver the balloon. * After, we ask you to fill it. By doing this, we will continue to say that our mind, our body is like that balloon. The more irritated we are, the more air and negative emotions accumulate. Until a moment when it bursts (let's let this happen).
Then, we will give you another balloon. On this occasion, we say to fill a little and then let the air escape. The balloon returned to its original position without exploding, now it is calm and relaxed.
Finally, we are going to ask the children to lie on the floor (on the carpet or on the mattress).
Now let's imagine that we are a balloon. A very, very angry balloon, which is accumulating a lot of air: our intestines swell, our arms swell, our legs swell ... And we are about to explode because negative emotions control us.
What do we do next? We are going to empty ourselves to perceive that great relief in the whole body. Now we feel lighter, more comfortable and happy.

Finally, let's remind children that whenever they feel full of anger, every time life gets complicated and brings them things that they do not like, that do not wait or that leave them nervous, remember the balloon. We must never let it explode, because when that happens, we all lose and it scared us.

When we feel nervous, there is nothing better than breathing deeply and letting air escape from our lungs. Emptying the tension will help us feel lighter to have more control over ourselves.

#edu-venezuela #family #stach #adsactly