Relaxation Exercises For Children

Play is an integral part of a child’s development. Children need to run, jump, dance and move around. Even so, sometimes they need to relax and be calm. In this article, we’re going to share relaxation exercises for children that will benefit their physical and mental health alike.

Teaching children these techniques will enable them to reduce their own anxiety, stress, and insomnia. They are also empowered to better control their emotions and behavior. Also, these exercises can improve your mood. Welcome to relaxation!

Methods according to Jacobson and Schultz

The Jacobson method is one of the most popular in the world. The technique involves contracting and then relaxing various muscles or muscle groups.

It’s easy. While lying on the floor, tell the child to tense the muscles of certain parts of the body and then relax. The child should notice progressive relief that spreads throughout the body. You can start with small muscle groups like the hand, foot, or neck. Over time, the exercises can then become more difficult.

The Schultz method is an autogenic relaxation exercise for children from the age of six. Schultz divided the method into two levels: an upper and a lower. It is based on the sensations of weight and warmth.

While lying on the floor, ask the child to focus on the parts of the body that seem to weigh more (usually legs or arms) and that are warmest. As soon as the child senses a change and has the feeling of releasing itself from tension, weight and warmth, it should proceed in a similar way with other parts of the body, such as the upper body. This way it should keep going until all muscles are relaxed.

To make it easier for the child to follow the instructions, you can suggest that they act like a robot. As such, it must move stiffly and robotically. Then, to relax, they transform into a rag doll with a soft body, free from muscle tension and other stiffness.

The game of Rejoue

Rejoue is one of the funnest techniques. In French, rejoue means “repetition”. This method is based on the assumption that the essence of life is pairs of opposites. So we have hot-cold, day-night, up-down, black-white, active-calm, etc. The Rejoue technique includes relaxation exercises for children on the basis of these couples.

This is done by rocking, mimicking the movement of a rocking chair. So the child uses almost all of their muscle groups to rock forwards, backwards, to one side and then to the other. The aforementioned duality comes into play when the child tenses some muscle groups but relaxes others. It can only rock effectively if it has sufficient control over its body.

Another game is stretching. It teaches young children to distinguish between the sensations of stretching and relaxation. For example, you could ask the child to open their arms and stretch them to the sides as far as possible. You should be held in this position for a few seconds. Then you ask it to slowly relax. They will feel a tingling sensation after doing this exercise a few times.

Activities with friends

Sometimes kids chase each other and it’s hard to calm them down. It’s also a lot harder for her to focus and focus after so much excitement. Here you can try the “feather duster exercise”.

It’s a very simple exercise. Some relaxing music is played in the background and the group of children is divided into pairs. One child at a time should lie on the floor while another child uses a feather duster (or feather) to play on their partner’s body after the music. Then they change positions.

There is another similar activity that involves a soft ball. It is also done in pairs. A child lies on the floor with his eyes closed. The other massages his partner’s body with a small, soft ball as if they were applying soap.

Visualize pleasant pictures

If there is one area that children are very good at, it is imagination. They are very creative and we can use that to relax them. Visualization is therefore a good way to calm them down.

Tell the child to lie on the floor and focus on their breathing for a few minutes. Next, ask them to focus on what we are about to say. Tell him to imagine a large, open field. The grain in this field sways gently with the wind. Tell him to smell the field, hear the birds sing, or feel the structure of the ears.

The visualization is very versatile. You can personalize this exercise with any landscape: the beach, the mountains, or you can let the child decide where to go. As you can see, you are only limited by your imagination. The main goal is to help the child have fun while relaxing.

In other words, guide the child so that they don’t see it as a task. In order to do that, it is necessary to make sure that as an adult you are properly modeling the child’s behavior. Remember, imitation is an important way for children to learn new things.

One final note: these relaxation exercises for children can work for adults too. After all, it’s always good to stay young!