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Developing acceptance and acknowledging emotions in a calm way can reduce feelings of overwhelm - different techniques are discussed.

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Mindful Living

Name It to Tame It is a simple, science-backed technique you can use to calm spiraling negative thoughts or intense emotions like fear, rage, or anxiety.

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Name It to Tame It: Label Your Emotions to Overcome Negative Thoughts

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Name It to Tame It is a simple, science-backed technique you can use to calm spiraling negative thoughts or intense emotions like fear, rage, or anxiety.

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Hot Cross Bun Method: Thoughts, Feelings and Behaviours 

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Hot Cross Bun Method: Thoughts, Feelings and Behaviours 

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This video provided by the NHS helps to explain how we can re-frame our thinking in anxious or distressing moments.

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Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT)

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Thoughts, feelings and behaviours - 0-19 wellbeing video

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AboutKidsHealth - The Hospital for Sick Children

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Everyday mindfulness | AboutKidsHealth at The Hospital for Sick Children

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Be the Pond | Mindfulness for Kids | Cosmic Kids Zen Den

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YoungMinds | Mental Health Charity For Children And Young People

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YoungMinds are a mental health charity for children, young people and their parents, making sure all young people can get the mental health support they need.

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Supporting the mental health and wellbeing of young Islanders and their families. We provide youth-led wellbeing and therapeutic support to young people, em ...

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Understanding Emotional Dysregulation in Children (Signs, Causes & How To Help Them)

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Communication and the Teenage Brain. | Martyn Richards | TEDxNorwichED

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How the brain works: This You Tube channel has been produced by Dr. Jo Crane. It provides parents with a breakdown on how the brain works, videos relating to different behaviours being demonstrated and provides information about emotional regulation.

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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Humans are creatures of habit. Even when we welcome it, change takes more energy. So perhaps it's not surprising that children often find it difficult to make transitions between activities, places and objects of attention. Being asked to stop one thing and start another is a very common trigger for problem behavior, especially for kids who have emotional or developmental challenges.

"Transitions are hard for everybody," says David Anderson, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute. "One of the reasons why transitions may be hard is that we're often transitioning from a preferred activity - something we like doing - to something that we need to do."

Difficulty with transitions can manifest in a number of ways depending on the child and the setting. It can take the form of resistance, avoidance, distraction, negotiation or a full-blown meltdown. Some of these reactions are the result of kids being overwhelmed by their emotions. And some are what they've learned works to successfully delay or avoid the transition.

A child told it's time to leave the playground might throw a tantrum initially because he can't manage his anger or frustration, but if he's found that it has worked to delay leaving the park, he's more likely to do it again. "It really depends on how the adults in his life have responded," says Matthew Rouse, PhD, a clinical psychologist. Other kids may not tantrum but instead master the art of whining, distracting, or negotiating with the adults in their life.

While transitions are triggers for lots of kids - what parent hasn't gotten resistance from a child being asked to stop playing a video game and come to dinner? - they are particularly difficult for kids with emotional and developmental issues. And while the behaviors may be the same, experts point out that the reasons behind the behavior are different for kids with different challenges. Here we look at why children with ADHD, anxiety, autism and sensory processing issues, find transitions particularly difficult.

For kids with ADHD, it all comes down to what they perceive as rewarding, says Dr. Rouse. While the disorder is described as an attention deficit, experts say it may be more useful to think about it as difficulty regulating attention - turning your attention to something you are expected to do, rather than something that you find rewarding.

"Kids with ADHD have fewer neurons in their reward centers, or neurons that aren't as active in the reward centers of their brains, so they find things throughout their day less rewarding," he explains. When they do find something rewarding, they tend to hyper-focus on it, which explains why someone with ADHD seems all over the place but then can play video games for hours. Ask them to do something less rewarding (like putting away Legos), and you might hit resistance.

Michael Rosenthal, PhD, a clinical neuropsychologist, adds that children with ADHD have a tougher time managing their emotions than other kids. "There's also research that shows that the wiring in the brain centers that are involved in helping kids exercise control over their emotions are less developed, so you get bigger emotional displays from them compared to kids who don't have ADHD."

Although transitions can be similarly challenging for kids with autism, the reactions tend to be more extreme, and the issue is rooted in a different difficulty. "For kids with autism," says Dr. Rosenthal, "the world is just an incredibly confusing and overwhelming place, so the need for sameness and predictability is adaptive," or practical. It's not simply that changing activities is upsetting, it's that any deviation from the routine can feel like the rug is being pulled out from under them.

Dr. Rosenthal refers to this as cognitive inflexibility, and says that it also explains why those on the autism spectrum have hyper-focused interests and tend to prefer doing the same things in the same order. "Any unexpected changes or transition for a kid with autism disrupts their equilibrium."

Although sensory processing is not a diagnostic term like ADHD or autism, kids with either disorder-or no disorder-can have sensory processing issues, which can lead to problems with transitions. For kids who are easily over stimulated, the world feels confusing and seems to move too fast. They crave order, which helps them feel calm and in control. "When you change things up on them too quickly," says Dr. Rosenthal, "then you see resistance or problem behaviors."

Kids with sensory issues are sometimes prone to dramatic meltdowns-emotional outbursts that they can't control-when they are overwhelmed by unexpected changes.

For kids who suffer from anxiety, trouble with transitions might come from a place of fear. "It could be fear of the unknown, or fear of what's going to happen when they're put in a new situation," notes Dr. Rosenthal. The problem is "usually some stimuli that's connected to the transition, rather than the process of transitioning itself," he adds.

If they've had an upsetting experience in a particular setting, the prospect of a transition to that location itself could also trigger anxiety. If a child is terrified of dogs, being asked to leave for the home of someone with a dog could trigger a tantrum, or even make a child lash out in anger.

Some kids with anxiety, especially those with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), have an intense need to do things perfectly. If they are interrupted before they are able to do something exactly the right way-forming letters perfectly in a writing assignment, or lining things up or doing a series of things in a prescribed order-they can get very upset, leaving an adult not aware of the anxiety mystified.

Understanding the triggers that make kids balk, or get upset, at transitions, is the first step to managing them better for both kids and adults.

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Why Do Kids Have Trouble With Transitions? - Child Mind Institute

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Humans are creatures of habit. Even when we welcome it, change takes more energy. So perhaps it's not surprising that children often find it difficult to make transitions between activities, places and objects of attention. Being asked to stop one thing and start another is a very common trigger for problem behavior, especially for kids who have emotional or developmental challenges.

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Tips and Guidance on Supporting Emotional Dysregulation

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Tips and Guidance on Supporting Emotional Dysregulation

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Tips and tricks to help with challenging behaviour

Formulated by Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke and the POP-UP team, these tips and tricks are backed by science and proven to work with families.

Tips and tricks to help with emotions

These videos focus on emotions and are formulated by Professor Andrea Danese and colleagues at the Maudsley CAMHS Trauma, Anxiety and Depression clinic. They are drawn from Cognitive Behavioural-Therapy (CBT) principles used to help young people who experience anxiety or depression.

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Parenting Tips & Tricks - Families Under Pressure - Maudsley Charity

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A guide with simple tips and tricks for parents on dealing with challenging behaviour and negative emotions, developed by researchers & NHS mental health experts.

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Supporting children to develop attention and impulse skills

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Supporting children to develop attention and impulse skills

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Attention Autism Strategies: How to do it

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Getting Started. Using drawing to share the message

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Barnardos Who's In Charge (Child to Parent Violence and Aggression)

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Barnardos Who's In Charge (Child to Parent Violence and Aggression)

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Who’s in Charge : Isle Of Wight Family Centres

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•To provide a supportive environment for parents and carers to share experiences and ideas,

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Talking Teens : Isle Of Wight Family Centres

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Supporting the mental health and wellbeing of young Islanders and their families. We provide youth-led wellbeing and therapeutic support to young people, em ...

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Isle of Wight Youth Trust Parent Support for CYP Mental Health - event booking

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Isle of Wight Youth Trust Parent Support for CYP Mental Health - event booking

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The Youth Trust is the Island’s independent charity providing youth mental health and wellbeing services dedicated to listening to, and supporting, the Island’s children and young people. The charity has been supporting young people on the Isle of Wight for over 40 years, through the provision of a confidential and professional counselling and wellbeing service.

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Free Zones of Regulation Resources | The Zones of Regulation

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Kooth is your online mental wellbeing community. Access free, safe and anonymous

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Tourettes Action is a support and research charity working to improve the lives of people living with Tourette Syndrome. Our services include online live-chat and email support, a befriender network, information, webinars, events and resources.

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Play sessions for children with additional needs : Isle Of Wight Family Centres

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We hold groups and activities for autistic adults and young people and run a sensory library.

Anyone who is autistic, going through the assessment process or thinking about getting a diagnosis, can access our services.

We understand getting a diagnosis can be complex and there are barriers to this so, we also welcome those who have experienced those barriers.

We don't exclude anyone from using our support.

We work with and for autistic people on the Isle of Wight.

We are also involved with various organisations to ensure lived autistic experience is used to improve services.

Artwork Top Left by Finn McCabe

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We hold groups and activities for autistic adults and young people and run a sensory library. Anyone who is autistic, going through the assessment process or thinking about getting a diagnosis, can access our services. We understand getting a diagnosis can be complex and there are barriers to this so, we also welcome those who have experienced those barriers.

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CAMHS child and Adolescent mental health service

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CAMHS child and Adolescent mental health service in Hampshire

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The National Autistic Society - Emotions

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The National Autistic Society - Emotions

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Four strategies for supporting autistic children to regulate emotions

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Specialist SEND teacher, Rachel Berry, and Director of External Partnerships, Cate Marsden, from Woodbridge Trust, share some effective ways to help children regulate their emotions.

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The National Autistic Society - Sensory Circuits

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The National Autistic Society - Sensory Circuits

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A sensory circuit involves a sequence of physical activities that are designed to alert, organise and calm the child. These activities support sensory processing, helping children to organise their senses in order to achieve the ‘just right’ or optimum level of alertness required for effective learning. The circuit should be active, physical and fun so that the children enjoy doing it. A more detailed explanation with ideas for activities can be found in our Sensory Circuits guide.