Have you ever had a kiddo who looked like “deep breathing” was making him more anxious? Like he might hyperventilate from trying to so hard to take deep breaths? Yeah… not so calming!! I have a great solution for you!!
Cupcake breathing! You have probably heard of using the visual to sniff a flower as a way to get students to take calming breaths. While that works for some students, it hasn’t been very successful for my moderate to severely disabled students. My amazing social worker came up with an adapted method and gave me permission to share it with you. Yay!
Our kiddos have a lot of experiences with cupcakes (and most are positive experiences) which already helps them feel positive about practicing and using this breathing strategy. We first ask them to pick the flavor of their cupcake (chocolate, vanilla, etc.). Then, we slowly smell the cupcake…. AKA slowly take a deep breath!
Then we breath out while saying, “Ahhhh” because it is so yummy! ? We do talk about how we need to be careful when we breath in and out because we don’t want to ruin our cupcake. Breath too heavy and you could ruin the frosting and no one wants that!!
