Activities for Children Struggling With HyperActivity, Stress,

Anxiety or Depression
The feeling of I am not enough , or I am Not upto standards is
fairly common among all ages.
Truth, is children have to understand that they are unique, and not
competing with anyone else.
As Parents and Teachers, we have a constant battle to keep the most
childrens of this generation engaged in a fruitful and fulfilling
manner.
Here are some activities in and out of school that can help calm
down the child.
First of all, any child and of any age, parents and teachers should
feed and strengthen their body and mind, with something that
inspires them and makes them feel good about themselves.
Second, Fear and anxiety are physical. Send them for boxing or a
long run,that energy flows right back into your body and restores
them to certainty.
Lets take a look at these activities that will feed and strengthen their
soul, mind and body.
1. Punching Bag
2. Standing on the head ( Shirshasana)
3. Meditation
4. Body Massage
5. Practice Silence ( Who is the quietest in the room?)
6. Chant the Mantras along with your kids
7. Pranayam - Breathing Exercises
8. Surya Namaskar (Salutations to Sun)
9. Peace Room/ Peace Corner ( With Distorting Mirrors and
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.

anti anxiety Toys)

Wall of Love and Fear
Wall of Fame
Wall of Gratitude
Get a Hobby
Rain Dance
Rain Sports
Search : Find a place in the Map
Blindfold Games
Rock Climbing

19.
20.
21.
22.

Swimming Pool Games

Run Vertical
Dark Den with lights
Other Activities

Punching Bag
Get a serious professional bag, that child once a day can punch, hit
hard and Let it All Out!
Children should be taught that its ok to feel emotions. Do not allow
the children to fight emotions, run away from them, or block them
out.
Meditation
If every eight year old in the world is taught meditation, we will
eliminate violence from the world within one generation
Meditation with both open or closed eyes are good. For lesser
distractions, teach the kids to medicate with closed eyes.
For Best Results:
1. Room : Sit in dark room, with no sounds and no lights.
2. Light : Keep one single red bulb.
3. Time : Start with 10 minutes and progressively increment to 30
mins.
4. Place : Set a fix place to sit quietly, and set a fix time in the day.
5. Position : Fold your legs while in sitting position, with your spine
upright. Ensure the child is comfortable.
First few times, you may have to monitor the child.
6. Sound : Silence is bliss. If your child finds it uncomfortable, Play a
background music of waterfall or seashore.
7. Ask the child to count breathing, if he is finding it hard to focus.
When counting, he would be less distracted by his thoughts and
emotions.
Practice Silence
Yes, you heard or read it right.
For a bit older kids, Schedule a time in the day, to dedicate to
silence.
You have start it small, like with 30 minutes and then increase over
the period.
I would like to emphasise both parents and family members have to
be involved. Itll be a great lesson for your little ones.
Turn it into a fun game : Who can be the quietest?
Remember it should sound like a fun game for your kids.
Break the silence with words of love and acts of good intent. Play
some music, and laugh it out, with the kids.

Body Massage
Its most effective tool to rebond, relax and distress your child.
A good oil massage has proven to strengthen the dopamine levels,
lower stress hormone levels, thus improving the sleep patterns and
reducing the anxiety.
Initially, it can be a struggle to get your child to lie down peacefully.
But after the massage, he/ she will see the difference.
For best results :
Atmosphere : Dim lights, right aroma in the room, and warm
massage oil.
You can play soft sounds - such as OM chants, water falls, or forests
sounds in the background. It will take few trials, to find out what
calms the child.
Try to keep the silence in the room. Speak softly, if needed to.
Both of the parents can perform a body massage for the child.
Father can do the head & foot massage, while mother works on the
rest of the body.
Chant the Mantras along with your kids
Kids love to sing. Chanting improves focus and concentration and
has powerful effects on brain development.
Initially start with simple OM mantra. Ask the child make different
sounds of OM. It should be a fun exercise.
OM in 7-10 different tones and after each one, ask the child to
repeat.
e.g
Say OM in frog voice, sheep voice, dog or baby voice.
Once the fun part is over, you could try these with the child. Chant
OM,
1. By closing left nasal
2. By closing right nasal
3. By closing both nasals.
4. Chant Om with long and stretch sounds of first phonetic sound
A. The sound should feel more like from the stomach.
5. Chant Om with long and stretch sounds of second phonetic sound
UUU. A sense of vibration should occur inside the throat.
6. Chant Om with long and stretch sounds of last phonetic sound
MMMM. A sense of vibration should occur inside the head. Lay
your hands on top of your head to feel the vibration.
Pranayam - Breathing Exercises

Pranayam is a practice concerned with breath control.

Thoughts leads to feelings which affect the behaviour and mood.
Research has shown that practicing Pranayam can help treat anxiety
and emotional distress.
Surya Namaskar (Salutations to Sun)
Best exercise to improve all aspects of the body, health, weight,
focus, digestions, sleep, anxiety.
Its well known as all-in-one exercise. A periodic practice of this one
single exercise will wipe of all anxiety and health issues, and has
much deeper relaxing effect than any other exercise.
Its recommended to be performed on an empty stomach.

Standing on the head ( Shirshasana)

Kids find this interesting. Moreover, the very fact that most parents
arent able to do as swiftly as their children, it boosts their ego, at
F1-Car speed.
Remember to start small. As a beginner, try to make your child to
remain in this position for at least 30 seconds & release slowly.
Warm Bath
A warm bath is relaxing. For better results, light some candles, add a
few nice scents, and be present with the child. Have lesser
distractions.
Let the child talk. You will only listen.
Peace Room/ Peace Corner
Create an Anti-Anxiety corner for the child. This room should be
filled with anti-anxiety toys such
Plain Mirror- at the entrance, so the child sees his / her face in the

moment of anger or frustrations. Just like adult, they are very

peculiar of they look and perceived.
Distorting Mirror - A distorting mirror or funhouse mirror or A
curved mirror is a mirror with a curved reflecting surface. A
pleasant way to make the child forget everything that just
happened.
Fidgeting toys
Cool Down Cubes : Let the child write his "cool down" strategy on
each ice cube. He can write his feelings on each cube and later
share with his parents or counsellor.

 Dim Lights
Magnetic Maze - Its a wonderful tool for kids to trace with their

fingers.
Floor Maze or Labyrinth - Create a Maze like structure on the floor.
the child walk through the paths and routes to the center and
back.
You could choose to do a maze or a Labyrinth. A maze is complex
branching puzzle with multiple choices of path and direction , while
Labyrinth is single branching path - both leads to the centre.
Both are effective methods to cool down the child and increase his
focus.
Dark Den with lights
Nothing like a small space of your dark, sweet aroma, and
enchanting lights.
If you cannot take your child out for some adventure, this is best
way for him to escape from his fear, anxiety. A space he calls his
own.
Den that can block day light or tube lights
coloured light objects such as balls that emit mutil colour lights.
Kids projector to project stars, moon, solar system.
Background music for effect.
Wall of Love and Fear
Just like a wall of fame, you could have a corner in a room, where
you and he can share feelings. Most of the time, children prefer not
to talk about it with adults.
For Best Results:
1. Child can write down what could have the parent done better in
that situation. What upset him/her.
2. In Response, Parent/ Teacher can write down what they were
expecting out of child, and the cause of sadness or disappointment.
3. Be Subtle. Use assertive, positive and affirmative words.
4. Put Smilies and Stars for what was good pertaining to that specific
situation.

My Wall of Fame
Dedicate a wall for your child to paint and draw, and express
emotions through colours.
When it comes to this specific wall, you should have no rules.

Wall of Gratitude
This one worked for kids in our family very well.
1. Take pictures of kids from streets, without food, shelter, or
pictures from orphanage.
2. Paste the pictures on wall.
3. Let the child look through them once in a while, and then write at
least 1 thing every day that they feel thankful about.
4. Make markings against the very thing, that the child is thankful
about more than once.

Hobby
There is always something out there for every single one of us as
escape mechanism.
No video games! thats not a hobby, but an addiction, and will
certainly work to drive up the dopamine levels.
We are referring to hobbies that specially help one calm down.
Introduce a hobby, that child be passionate about.
Some find it in :
Long drive or Cycling
Running
Jigsaw Puzzles
Sudoku
Music
Dance
Drawing
Mountain biking

 Basketball / Soccer / Cricket

Play Drums/ piano or any instrument

Moreover,
Social Circle : Hobbies can lead you to a new social circle for
yourself and your kids.
Improves Memory : According to Psychological Science studies,
mentally-challenging hobbies have showed significant gains in
memory.
High level of engagement : Pastime offers the time and space to
relax. Its a state of mind flow.It can put us in a near-meditative
state. Developing these moments a person feels more content
with their life
Replace negative emotions : As the child develops expertise, it will
be the best escape mechanism from stress and strong
emotions.
Enhances a sense of pride and joy : Child is fully engaged in what
he is doing that he will lose track of time and temporary relief
from stress. Hobbies provide a direct route to passion, sense of
belonging and boosts self esteem.
Other group or family activities :
Rain Dance
Rain Sports
Search : Find a place in the Map
With bunch of kids together, a specific city is asked to find in a large
map. hint such as state name, name of the country, National animal,
or flag is provided.
Timer is provided. The first team find it in time get the points.
Benefits :
Attention to details
Memory Skills
Improve the IQ
Team work - Kids come up with a strategy on how to perform the
search in the given time. Most divide the tasks among team
members while search is being done.
For best results:
Keep the teams small 2-4 children max.
Use an Hour Glass or Sand time ( they come in different colours,
fancy designs and times limits such 1 min, 3 min, 5 min, or even 30

mins timer)
Blindfold Games
This has been a part of team building activities for many years. The
blindfolded person has to rely upon a sighted person to lead and
help the blindfolded person succeed. This is good exercise in schools
and at home for developing communication with peers/ siblings, and
learn to trust each other in group or project works.
Traditional games such as
Pin the Tail on the Donkey : Either draw the outline of a donkey
or paste a large picture on the wall. Each team member takes
turns to pin a tail on the donkey while wearing a blindfold.
Blindfolded child could Start 3 to 5metres from the drawing
and can be guided by his partner.
Blindfolds line up : For a group of 5 to 12. Blindfold everyone in
the group then ask them to line up in

Height order

Birthday order

Alphabetic order - Of first name or Last Name or both.

Shoe size order

Rock Climbing
This is possible if you have facilities around your area to visit once a
month for this activity
Swimming Pool Games
Most ADHD ADD or ODD kids love water, but are lazy to swim.
Run Vertical
Running up the stairs, and clock the time to complete. Its the best
way to get the kids to sweat, and let it out and let it go.