My Calm Kit

What is Regulation/Self-Regulation?

ATN’s Calm Kits contain tools that can help children (and adults) regulate their emotions when they start to feel dysregulated. Being regulated is a balanced state of your nervous system– where you’re both calm enough and attentive enough that your cortex (thinking brain) is able to be present and to engage and learn. We want students (and all of us) to be in a regulated state as much as possible.

Our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) has basically two opposing functions:

The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) “activates” us, to up-regulate. This puts us in a more aroused, less calm state. If this upregulation becomes too much, we can dysregulate. Then we need the tools and skills to help us to calm down.
The Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) downregulates us. If this downregulation becomes too much, we can dysregulate with a freeze/dissociation response. In this case, we need the tools and skills to help us to upregulate until we’re able to attend and re-engage with what’s going on in the present.

How to Use ATN Calm Kits

The tools in ATN’s Calm Kits are just some of many that could be used to help learn regulation skills. There are many, many more items that could be added to help children engage in self-regulation activities. The most important factors about using Calm Kits or any type of regulatory tools/strategies in the classroom are as follows:

Use of the tools must be taught and encouraged. Students won’t know how to use the tools or when to use them without being shown the tools and given a chance to experience their use. The students who most need skill-building help in self-regulation will need active teaching, coaching and modeling. Helping children to understand when they are starting to feel dysregulated is incredibly important. Some educators use Dr. Dan Siegel’s Hand Model of the Brain.

Students need freedom to choose which tools they use. All humans have different tools they use to calm or activate themselves. What works well for one student may not work for others.
Students need freedom to access tools when needed. The goal is to teach students when they are starting to feel dysregulated and what they can do to bring their nervous systems back into balance. So these Calm Kits should be readily available and not relegated to defined breaks or recesses. We also should not instruct students to “go to the Calm Corner” when we observe dysregulation in a command way, but invite the student to remember they have access to these tools.

A word about Co-Regulation and Relationships

Co-regulation is when an adult actively helps the student to reach a more regulated state by intentionally modeling regulation and using their relationship/connection with that student as a safe base. Co-regulation is actually how infants and young children learn self-regulation skills from their caregivers. As you may already know, co-regulation is a powerful tool in helping students to build skills and capacity for self-regulation…more important than any/all of the physical tools in the Calm Kits.

In order to co-regulate with students, we ourselves must first be regulated. Practicing self-regulation skills is critical. Taking care of ourselves and nurturing our own emotional health and regulation is a must. Creating an environment of physical and emotional safety is very important for everyone in our schools. Developing caring, responsive relationships with our students, so that they trust you enough to help them regulate will make teaching self-regulation skills much more successful.

Contents of ATN’s Calm Kits

Water Wheel - Joe Brummer

Pinwheel - Jen Alexander

Wall Push-Ups - Dyane Carrere

Brain Noodle - Sandra Lake

Chair Band- Danny Pancratz

Yellow PT Band - Dyane Carrere

Silicone Sponge- Melissa Sadin

Color Changing Pencil - Taneesha Thomas

Connected Notes - Julie Beem

Calm Strips - Julie Beem

Glitter Globe - Spark Initiative (only in sponsored kits)

Additional Resources

Here are some additional resources on Regulation, Self-Regulation, and strategies for helping students with trauma-related dysregulation and behaviors.