What’s In Your Emotional Toolbox? Takeaways from Keiki Self-Care

On August 23, the Hawaiʻi Public Health Training Hui had the pleasure of hosting Amanda Martinez of Mental Health America of Hawaiʻi for her enlightening webinar presentation, “Keiki Self-Care.” In this training, Amanda taught us how keiki experience stress and sadness and then shared strategies we can use to assist keiki in regulating and processing their emotions.

One of the strategies Amanda discussed is the stoplight method. Just like  on the road, we follow the different colors to know what to do next. Green means go, indicating that our little one feels good and everything is going well. Yellow means caution and time to slow down, prompting us to provide check-ins with the little ones. Red means stop. When you find yourself and your little ones in the red zone, you should acknowledge that they are upset and then turn to your “emotional toolbox” to address the problem.

What is your emotional toolbox? It can be literal sensory items inside a toolbox, or it could be exercises and activities planned out ahead of time to assist your little one when they’re in the red zone. Different emotions require different responses. If our little ones are angry, we should help them burn off excess energy with activities that get them actively moving and then identify the cause of their anger. If they’re feeling “frozen,” sensory grounding and mindfulness practices, such as breathing exercises, can help them relax. Amanda identified one such breathing exercise where we place a soft toy on the keiki’s stomach and instruct them to focus on making the toy move just by their breaths. If they’re feeling stressed, we should check in and help them soothe themselves with grounding techniques. For example, we can ask them to identify different things they can see, hear, smell, feel, and taste to keep them present in their bodies. Additionally, we can take away some of their workloads to ease their stress. By following the stoplight method and using our emotional toolbox, we can really help our keiki in processing their emotions.

We want to thank Amanda again for her incredible training. If you would like to watch the training in full, you can find it on the Hawaiʻi Public Health Training Hui’s YouTube channel. Please also ave the date for our October 11 webinar,  “Ethical Care for Neurodivergent People” to hear from local expert Zahava “Zee” Zaidoff about how healthcare providers can improve their care for neurodivergent patients.