Being a pushover can help.

Fact: kids get themselves all wound up and frustrated.

Fact: sometimes you can predict times in the day when your child is going to be all wound up

Fact: wound up children can be incredibly triggering for adults.

HEAVY WORK activities help children with their sensory input. It helps them know where their body is in space by giving them VESTIBULAR (balance and movement) and PROPRIOCEPTIVE (body awareness) input.

Heavy work is activities that push or pull against the body, giving the receptors in the muscles and joints a message to send back to the brain to say ‘here’s my body, this is what it’s doing’.

The resistance of that pushing or pulling action can make a child feel calmer, safer and more regulated. When you support them with heavy work, you may see less big behaviours like throwing and crashing into things. Those behaviours are often children SEEKING the sensory input that’s messing.

PUSHOVER.

Practice this activity when your child is calm and happy. Get them to push against your hands to see if they can push you over. It’s probable that they can’t, but you can offer some resistance yet pretend to fall over. They’ll be having fun and yet will also be getting a whole lot of sensory input.

Watch the full reel here

Share this with a parent who’s little one is having some BIG emotions, and save this for later to support our content. You’ve got this.