The Benefits of Relaxation in Child Care

Look­ing for a new child­care train­ing course or annu­al train­ing hours? Take our five clock-hour course Child Abuse and Neglect: A Care­giver’s Guide to Adverse Child­hood Expe­ri­ences.

Take this course to learn ways to rec­og­nize forms of child abuse, neglect, and oth­er adverse child­hood expe­ri­ences (ACEs) includ­ing house­hold dys­func­tion and expo­sure to racism, as well as the long-term effects of such expe­ri­ences. Learn the rea­sons for and results of child abuse and neglect, typ­i­cal traits of abu­sive or neglect­ful par­ents, the caregiver’s respon­si­bil­i­ty in report­ing it, and ways care­givers can help chil­dren who are the vic­tims of child abuse, neglect, and oth­er ACEs. Learn spe­cif­ic strate­gies to strength­en fam­i­lies and reduce risk for chil­dren of all ages. Read a small excerpt from the course here:

Childcare Training Excerpt: The Benefits of Relaxation

Relax­ation refers to any exer­cise that helps remove stress, anx­i­ety, or fear from our minds. Relax­ation helps chil­dren slow down and “unplug,” which is cru­cial in an increas­ing­ly tech­no­log­i­cal world as well as a busy ear­ly child­hood pro­gram set­ting. Along­side out­door recre­ation, relax­ation pro­vides chil­dren with a good bal­ance between being “on” and “off.” Relax­ation can also allow chil­dren to devel­op their cog­ni­tive skills, includ­ing atten­tion and pat­tern recognition.

Relax­ation has mul­ti­ple emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal ben­e­fits for chil­dren. It relax­es the mind with­out the neg­a­tive con­se­quences that can emerge when chil­dren engage in com­pet­i­tive play and sports. Relax­ing the mind improves children’s focus and has pos­i­tive spillover effects for phys­i­cal health. Research shows that prac­tic­ing relax­ation exer­cis­es can help chil­dren suf­fer­ing from high blood pres­sure, immune dys­func­tion, headaches, and gas­troin­testi­nal distress.

Relaxation Exercises, Deep Breathing and Quiet Places in Child Care

There are many ways to adopt relax­ation exer­cis­es into your pro­gram. Chil­dren will enjoy move­ment-based activ­i­ties such as yoga that can help them become calmer and improve their focus. Cre­ative visu­al­iza­tion and art activ­i­ties can help strength­en children’s imag­i­na­tion skills. All chil­dren will enjoy and ben­e­fit from these exer­cis­es. These exer­cis­es are par­tic­u­lar­ly help­ful for reduc­ing children’s stress and mit­i­gat­ing the impacts of ACEs.

One such method for relax­ation is deep breath­ing. Prac­tic­ing deep breath­ing for even a few min­utes dai­ly can help chil­dren learn to man­age strong emo­tions and find a sense of calm when they are stressed.

Another way to help children relax in child care…

… is to cre­ate a qui­et place for children’s relax­ation exer­cis­es. Prac­tic­ing relax­ation exer­cis­es in a soft, grassy, and spa­cious area—near trees for shade—is ide­al. If your pro­gram has lim­it­ed out­door space, cre­ate a relax­ation area indoors, prefer­ably in a qui­et cor­ner away from entryways.

Arrange fur­ni­ture and light­ing in the space to cre­ate a relax­ing envi­ron­ment for chil­dren. A large, com­fort­able rug is a good way to clear­ly des­ig­nate the space. Lamps pro­duce a soft­er light than over­head light­ing. To ensure children’s com­fort, place pil­lows or cush­ions on the rug to cre­ate a cozy, acces­si­ble environment.

Explain to chil­dren that in addi­tion to its use for spe­cif­ic indi­vid­ual or group relax­ation activ­i­ties, this qui­et space is avail­able any time they are feel­ing stressed, need a moment to man­age their emo­tions and find a sense of calm, or sim­ply need a moment of quiet.

Take our five clock hour child care train­ing course Child Abuse and Neglect: A Care­giver’s Guide to Adverse Child­hood Expe­ri­ences to learn more! Care Cours­es offers con­ve­nient, afford­able online and course­book options, unlim­it­ed free train­er sup­port with all of our ear­ly child care train­ing, and online child­care class­es that can be com­plet­ed at your own pace. 

Look­ing for more free child­care train­ing con­tent? Check out our blog: Achoo! What to Do About Envi­ron­men­tal Aller­gies in Child Care.

Look­ing for a free 1‑clock-hour child care course? Take our free course, Play­ing Out­doors!

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