Oftentimes the missing piece in emotional and self-regulation is awareness of our states of arousal - basically, what's going on in our bodies. This awareness is called interoception. One evidenced-based way to increase interoceptive awareness is to have children practice tuning into their bodies via biofeedback. This can be super hard to implement without special equipment. However, your heart rate is one piece of biofeedback that's relatively easy to monitor without special equipment - all you need is your hands and a watch. Alternatively, if you have an apple watch or other smart watch, you have a heart-rate monitor available to use.

This heart-rate monitoring activity provides a way for children to become more attuned to their bodily signals, and in turn, become better at regulating themselves and identifying when they are becoming upset. Better yet, the activities are fun for kids who are otherwise resistant to talking about calming because they are doing experiments, not talking about their feelings!

This no-prep activity booklet consists of the following sections:

• Introduction to what your heart rate is and why it matters
• 2 pages of experiments that have you increase your heart rate and then practice slowing it down
• 2 pages for children to come up with their own experiments
• 1 page of calming strategies to slow your heart rate
• a reflection page to ensure that the message gets through

Hope you enjoy this product! If you do, please check out another great interoception resource on my page - the body chart check.