How to relieve stress in a child. Lack of physical activity. Stress in a child: psycho-gymnastics will help

How to help a child get rid of anxiety, overcome stress or distract from some negative event? No need to immediately run to a psychologist! Parents themselves can relieve stress with the help of remedial classes.

Here are 10 simple but very effective games, the main purpose of which is to save the baby from worries and bad memories, which could be obtained in the kindergarten, at school, on the playground.

1. Let's jump with all our hearts

Your child loves to jump on the bed, and you scold him for it? Very in vain, because such “jumping ropes” allow you to throw out all the negativity and relieve stress, leaving no chance for stress.

The whole secret is in “weightlessness”, along with the feeling of flying, positive impulses are transmitted to the brain. Therefore, you should not scold the baby for jumping, it is better to take him to places specially designed for this. For example, on a trampoline.

2. Let's make the days colorful

There is such a thing as "living in yesterday" - this often happens with children. They can think for a long time about what happened in the past, and transfer events to the present. In order not to let the child "hang", you need to make every day bright. Distribute the colors of the rainbow over all days of the week: Monday - red, Tuesday - orange, etc.

And every day, focus your baby's attention on a particular color. If it's Thursday, for example, then organize everything in green: green clothes, green fruits/vegetables, etc. This will help revive the child's feelings and bring him back to reality.

3. Remove the mask with a warm-up

Scientists say: if the child received psychological trauma, and his face became indifferent, then you can remove such a “frozen mask” with the help of a plastic game. Interest the baby in modeling from plasticine, and then jokingly invite him to “become plasticine” himself. The essence of this game is to massage the baby's face, you have to playfully "sculpt" different figures from it and knead the cheeks. You can even make faces and make faces together - after such an activity, the child will noticeably relax.

4. Let's release negativity into the sky or along the river

Any negative emotions must be let go, you can’t keep them in yourself. But it is sometimes very difficult to get rid of stress even for an adult, and it is doubly difficult for a child. And the most effective method get rid of negativity - let it go. Ordinary balloons and paper boats will help with this: launch the balloons into the sky, and launch the boats on the water. Highly simple ways escape from an unpleasant event.

5. Let's make a paper garland

It happens that for some reason the baby becomes isolated and refuses to communicate with other children. Invite him to make a paper garland together - a chain, lanterns, snowflakes or little men who hold hands. Color them in, give each a name, draw eyes - give the craft some kind of unity. This will help the shy baby to loosen up and get closer to new friends in the future.

6. Look for qualities in a name

This game is perfect option psychological protection of the individual, thanks to which the child quickly adapts to new environment. Its essence is that the baby writes his name in a column and determines his quality for each letter. Example: the name POLINA. P - Diligent, O - Sociable, L - Affectionate, I - Sincere, H - Reliable, A - Accurate. Or the name EGOR: E - the only one, G - hospitable, O - mischievous, R - decisive. Absolutely for every name you can always find some good quality.

7. Let's play with a drop of paint

Another simple but very useful game for relaxation and stress relief. Prepare a glass of water and invite your child to drip watercolor into it. The droplet will begin to dissolve, forming bizarre patterns. Let the kid use all his imagination and try to dance what he sees. For example, a pattern in the water resembles a fish, and the child must show it with plasticity. A very interesting game.

8. Run the negative with prints

Often, a closed baby "closes" in itself and is afraid to simply enjoy life - the experienced fear does not allow it. And to help your child get rid of anxiety, you can play prints with him. The essence of the game: a finger or even the entire palm is dipped into the paint, after which a trace must be left on paper. From this print, the kid must draw what his fantasy tells him: a camomile, a ball, a kitten, an umbrella, etc.

9. Let's look for a child in an imaginary world

To "return" the baby from his imaginary world to today, try playing a simple but very effective game with him. Rules: you suddenly ask him: “Where are you?”, He answers: “I am here” and describes exactly where “is located”. Do not correct him, the child must come up with and tell about his feelings. For example: "I am sitting on a green lawn in a beautiful dress with polka dots and eating a sweet watermelon."

10. Let's release "steam" with active games

Absolutely any negativity needs to be released, and this can be done with the help of loud outdoor games. And it doesn't matter what it will be: pillow fight, hand clapping, hammering nails or drumming - it is important to let off steam. Here the “wedge kicks out with a wedge” method works, so you need to get rid of negative energy in radical ways. Any noisy game that can be played at home or in nature will do. This will help the child find peace of mind and relieve stress.

3 easy exercises your kids will love.

You will need:

• A4 sheet of paper
• Colored markers (thick or medium)
• Colour pencils

This exercise is great to relieve tension and calm the child if he is overexcited. Yes, and it will be useful for an adult to meditate with a pencil in his hands after a busy day.

This activity does not require prior preparation. In any house where children grow up, there are felt-tip pens and pencils, and paper can be borrowed from dad.

Preparing for the lesson: the main thing is the mood.

First make gentle flicking motions with your dominant hand and shoulder. These actions will help relieve muscle tension and focus on the feeling of your own hand.

1. Without taking your hands off

Let the child choose the color of the felt-tip pen (pencil). Show him how to put the pencil on the paper correctly, and offer to start moving in any direction. The hand moves smoothly without breaking away from the paper.
At the same time, it is very important to focus on what mark the pencil leaves on the paper and observe its movement. Help the child to tune in and relax so that there are no clamps in the hand, make sure that he breathes calmly and rhythmically.

2. Blind contour

Blind contour is drawing with eyes closed. You can turn away so as not to look at the sheet, or blindfold.

The exercise always causes a storm of delight - it's so amazing and unexpected what happens if you don't see the picture. It seems that the hand itself performs it, but in fact at this moment the brain and its analytical function are working with might and main, and body coordination is developing. The internal critic and secondary distractions are turned off, for example, looking at the picture “What am I doing?”, “What does it look like?”.

Start with simple exercise- Try to draw a circle. Laugh together at what happened. You can change places with your child, take turns drawing. Let him watch you do it. Please note that each time the movements will become more confident.

Try to repeat this exercise from time to time. You will see for yourself how wonderfully it trains intuition.

3. Coordinate system

Now let's make it harder!

Option 1:

We take a new sheet of paper. On it we will draw several circles without looking at once so that they do not go beyond the edges of the sheet. Now the task for the brain and the coordination system has become even more interesting: you need to feel both the shape of the circles and the space allowed for drawing.
If you wish, you can repeat the exercise or draw circles different colors. Just don't peek until you're done drawing 🙂

Option 2:

On a new sheet of paper, we will again draw a circle. But this time it should be as large as possible, at the same time, fit on a piece of paper. Concentrate well, turn on all non-visual orientation systems and create!

At the very end of the lesson, you can take one of the options with several circles and paint over them. Let the child choose the colors of the pencils, focusing on intuition.
Intersection areas also need to be painted over.

If the child wanted to mix colors, overlap one color with another - great. The work should turn out to be joyful and inspiring, like a fireworks display.

Even more art therapy techniques for children and other interesting creative exercises are combined in the Art Exercise course from

Every day we are faced with situations that require composure, a good reaction from us. Such situations are associated with a drastic change environment, change of psycho-emotional environment. Such abrupt change in the established way of life of a person is called a stressful situation. It is foolish to believe that only adults who experience them most often at work are subject to stress. Children are also very often exposed to stress in everyday life.

Stress leads to minor adjustments in the child's body, helping to cope with a change in the environment. Such changes in the body are temporary, and after the normalization of the child's environment, the body is again rebuilt for everyday work.

Changes in the body, aimed at combating stress, “exhaust” the body, as they require a lot of energy. At prolonged stress When the body does not have time to "rest", persistent dysfunctions of the body can develop, which will manifest themselves in the form of various diseases.

Causes of stress

Stressful situations can await a child every day. The first stressful situation the child encounters during childbirth. During this period, it moves from one environment of life to another. In the mother's womb, the child was protected from any environmental impact, he constantly received food, it was always warm. After birth, the child has to independently maintain its temperature, look for food. The type of blood circulation in a child changes, some messages between the vessels are closed. It happens for the reason that it changes arterial pressure in vessels and excreted a large number of adrenaline. Also, immediately after birth, the child's lungs expand and the first breath is taken, which is accompanied by a cry. This is due to a decrease in the supply of oxygen to the child's brain. Another stimulant for the first breath is a decrease in ambient temperature.

The next stressful situation that the child faces is the search for food. Food is necessary for the child to produce energy, which is stored in the body in the form of glucose (sugar). The most dangerous in terms of the development of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) for a newborn baby are the first 2 hours of life. During this period, the child must receive food. While in the womb, the child was constantly fed, and he did not need to make energy reserves. Once in the external environment, the child spends a large amount of energy on all the restructuring of the body, so glucose reserves are quickly depleted. Decreased glucose causes brain damage, which is very dangerous for the life of the child, so it is very important to feed the child during the first two hours of his life. AT further child learns to receive nutrition when the level of glucose in the body decreases. To do this, he tells his mother that he wants to eat, with the help of screaming and crying.

Another stressful situation associated with the neonatal period is hypothermia. A newborn baby cannot regulate its body temperature to the extent that adults do. This is due to a small layer of subcutaneous fat and imperfection of thermoregulation processes. Also, when the ambient temperature drops, adults maintain body temperature with the help of shivering. Trembling is a chaotic muscle contraction, which produces a large amount of heat. Such thermogenesis is called trembling. Newborn children do not have this ability, therefore, with sharp decline environmental temperature, children cannot maintain body temperature.

One of important factors in the life of a child is his leisure. AT modern world children cannot find activities, organize leisure. All the main time of children is occupied computer games and internet. Children lose the ability to communicate, to find friends, topics for conversation. In this case, it is important to choose a hobby for the child that would interest him. You can’t impose something on the child that he doesn’t like (music school, ballroom dancing, etc.), the child himself must make a choice, your task is to interest him and help the child make a choice.

Children have to face even more serious difficulties if they come from dysfunctional families. Every day they have to go home, where a drunken father awaits them, no dinner, or, which is already very bad, beating or violence. These children are often social workers are taken away from families, which is also very stressful for the child. Children, after they were taken away from their families, are in hospitals, orphanages. For a child, such an environment is unusual, traumatizing him psychologically. The child feels his uselessness, that he has no one close. In school, kindergarten, such children are very often somewhat isolated from the rest, as they understand their social "inferiority".

Another stage in a child's life associated with stressful situations is the sexual experience. AT adolescence the child studies his body, which during this period undergoes various metamorphoses. Children, through trial and error, learn from their own experience all the wisdom of sexual life. Such an experience is not always successful, and very often the first sexual experience is associated with disappointments. Very often during this period, children can become the object of ridicule and bullying by more experienced peers.

Symptoms of stress in children

As you can see, the reasons for stress in children are not much less than in adults. How does stress manifest itself in children?

A stressful situation requires some kind of action from our body, and any action entails a waste of energy. In stressful situations, the energy consumption in the child's body increases tenfold. In addition to energy, micro and macro elements are also consumed from the reserves of the body and a large amount is formed. harmful substances. All this leads to the depletion of the body, its wear and tear. Therefore, it is very important that the stresses are short-term and not repeated too often, so that the child's body has time to "rest" and restore its reserves of substances.

During stressful situations, a large amount of free electrolytes are formed in the body, which have a toxic effect on the cell wall. Because of this, the cell wall becomes more permeable, and a large amount of various substances, including viruses. All this leads to increased cell death in our body. To combat free electrolytes in our body, there are substances that have an antioxidant effect. These substances stabilize the cell wall and remove free electrolytes from the body by binding them. These substances include vitamins C, PP, group B, the trace element selenium. However, the supply of these substances in our body is not unlimited, therefore, when these reserves are depleted, symptoms of chronic stress appear.

The skin is the first to react to stress. In children, skin turgor decreases, it becomes pale, there is a tendency to peeling, the formation of acne. Very often, with chronic stress in children, due to a decrease in the amount of vitamins in the body, seizures appear in the corners of the mouth (cheilitis). These seizures are quite painful, tend to spread and are difficult to treat. In addition to the skin, the appendages of the skin (hair, nails) are also the first to respond to stress. Hair loses its color, becomes dull, brittle. Very often, under stress in children, alopecia areata can develop. This disease is associated with a shortening of the life of the hair and increased hair loss. This disease manifests itself in the form of patches of baldness on the scalp. Nails become brittle, exfoliate. Enough characteristic manifestation chronic stress is that children bite their nails. Because of this, the nail plate has an uneven edge, stratification of the nail occurs.

Very often, with prolonged stress, disturbances in nervous system. This can manifest itself in the form of sleep disturbances (insomnia, restless sleep), the appearance of various ticks. Tics appear as involuntary contractions various groups muscles. It can be a twitch of the eye, a curvature of the corner of the mouth, a tilt of the head.

With a longer course of stressful situations, damage often occurs. gastrointestinal tract. In children with chronic stress, wear of the upper edge of the teeth due to constant grinding of them can be observed. Gastrointestinal tract damage manifests itself in various dyspeptic disorders: abdominal pain, nausea, heartburn, stomach rumbling, constipation or diarrhea. Children lose weight, food is poorly digested, iron intake is reduced, which also leads to a deterioration in the condition.

Due to the decrease in the content of vitamins in the child's body, its barrier systems decrease. This leads to a decrease in the body's resistance to the effects of viruses and bacteria, which manifests itself in frequent colds.

Beyond development different states chronic stress leads to an exacerbation of diseases already existing in children. So stressful situations lead to increased production of hydrochloric acid the child's stomach, which can lead to an exacerbation of chronic gastritis.

There is also such a disease as a stress ulcer, and it is associated with the development peptic ulcer stomach in response to frequent stress. Frequent stress leads to deterioration bronchial asthma, enhances the manifestations of biliary dyskinesia. In girls, chronic stress can cause menstrual cycle until his absence.

How to deal with stress in children?

It is very important to try to protect the child from stressful situations. It is the main concern of every parent that his child is happy. Try to create an environment for the child that will not make him nervous. Spend all your free time with children, be interested in their life, try to participate in solving some issues and problems that your child has. Nothing relieves stress like a trip to nature, especially to the forest.

Try to take your children out of the city, go with them to the forest for mushrooms and berries. It is very important that the rest is active: go on a picnic on bicycles, play ball, volleyball, badminton with your child.

The child must receive balanced food, rich in proteins carbohydrates and vitamins. It is very important to include in the child's diet fresh vegetables and fruits. Remember, in addition to vitamins, some foods also contain endorphins (the hormone of happiness). Such endorphin-rich foods are bananas, salami, and chocolate. The use of these products improves mood.

To reduce toxic action free electrolytes on the cells of the body the child should receive enough vitamins. It is very important for a child to get vitamin C, which is found in large quantities in citrus fruits. However, eating large amounts of citrus fruits can cause allergies. Can be used multivitamin complexes. But remember that taking vitamins should be limited to 30 days and no more than 2 times a year. A multivitamin containing selenium, which has antioxidant properties, also has a very good effect on the body.

AT severe cases when stressful situations cannot be overcome in all the ways described, you have to apply for medical care to a psychologist, psychotherapist and even a psychiatrist.

Pediatrician Litashov M.V.

Stress is a natural physiological response to a condition. overvoltage arising from the first days of a person's life. Children experience stress just as much as adults. It is a reaction to something new. nervous overload can cause the first steps, and the grandmother who came to visit, and the quarrel of the parents. With an adequate reaction, stress can be useful for a child: it helps to mobilize one's strength, to cope with the situation, but excessive stress exhausting.

It is impossible to completely protect the baby from all difficulties, so the task of parents is to teach him to respond correctly to troubles or important events.

Stress in a child: the first bells

Moms and dads should learn to notice the signals of nervous tension in a child themselves. The main manifestation of the state of stress in children is a change in their behavior.

excess nervous tension in children often manifests itself through regression to characteristics younger age: they begin to suck their fingers, wet their pants, ask for hands, etc. Older children can become withdrawn, too obedient. A sign of stress in a child is the appearance of neurotic phenomena (tics, stuttering in speech, enuresis, gnashing of teeth, biting of nails, obsessive movements etc.), bad or excessive appetite and increased fatigue.

Having noticed such signals in their child, the first thing parents should do is try to reduce his load, no matter how useful they may seem. The task of adults is to choose for the baby individual method getting rid of stress. We will talk about psycho-gymnastics and logarithmics.

Stress in a child: psycho-gymnastics will help

The method of psycho-gymnastics originates from the psychotherapeutic technique for adults, "psychodrama", and is based on the performance of different roles in the studies by the participants. With the help of the movements that psycho-gymnastics uses as a means of communication, the baby is able to better understand and express himself, to realize his actions and emotions. Psycho-gymnastics teaches a child not only to express his own feelings, but also to communicate with peers, to better understand others.

You can invite your child to play the following games:

Introduction to emotions. Often, a state of stress is accompanied by a “freezing” of some emotion in the body, for example, everything seems to be fine, and the child has a sad mask on his face, but he himself does not notice it. Therefore, your task is to help the child learn to express different emotions. The smallest can develop facial activity with a massage: rub your cheeks, raise and lower your eyebrows, open your mouth, stretch your lips in a smile, accompanying your actions with sentences: “And the green frog pulls its lips right to the ears.” For older children, you can prepare cards depicting emotions, and conduct a series of studies on each of them. For example, for the emotion of disgust, show the pantomime "Salty Tea" (wrinkled nose, lowered corners of the mouth), and for joy - the scene "Playing Puppy" (the child laughs, jumps, spins). Here it is important to turn on your imagination and participate in the game together with the child, drawing his attention to the mimic and motor expressions of this or that feeling. These activities will help the baby to release his inner feelings.

Theatricalization with behavior modeling. Such games are aimed at responding to an alarming situation, removing emotional stress with problems, finding and fixing the best way to respond. If the kid is having a hard time adapting to kindergarten, play with him the sketch “Petya goes to kindergarten”, where the child will be able to take on the role of not only Petya, but also mother, educator. Do not forget that one topic should be played several times, do not impose the “necessary” behavior on the child, be patient. When the situation ceases to carry a strong emotional stress you will notice changes in the child's behavior.

Psychomuscular training. Special exercises for relaxation and muscle tension help relieve psycho-emotional stress, restore the child's strength. Quite the crumbs will suit fun games: “Bunny jumps” (a series of jumps - rest), “Bear cub with bumps” (catch a “bump”, squeeze tightly in fists, relax hands and arms). With kids preschool age you can carry out exercises, moving from one muscle group to another: arms, legs, torso, neck and face. For example, let the child imagine and show that he is lifting a heavy barbell, and then drops it to the floor (hands fall along the body, relaxed). For the body, the exercise “Cold and hot” is suitable (the sun has set - shrink into a ball, tremble, it came out - warm up, sunbathe).

Stress in a child: doing logarithmics with mom

Logarithmics is a system game exercises based on the relationship of music, movement and speech. Exercises effectively fight neurotic manifestations of stress in children (tics, speech disorders) and psycho-emotional (it calms excitable kids, and spurs slow ones).

All logarithmic exercises are based on imitation: you show, and the baby repeats. They require repeated repetition and musical accompaniment. However, the effect of classes should not be expected too quickly, logarithmics take time.

You can start classes almost from the cradle, reading nursery rhymes and rhymes and clapping the rhythm with your hands. To get started, help the baby raise and lower the arms, clap your hands to the beat of the music. With a child older than two years, you can perform exercises to develop a sense of rhythm and pace, breathing and voice. These games will help you:

"It's raining." After listening to the sounds of rain, the baby slaps the rhythm and tempo of large drops (slowly) and small drops (quickly) on his knees, pronouncing "drip-drip" in accordance with the claps.

"Strong wind". After taking a deep breath through the nose, the child draws a long and loud noise"u-u-u". Performing dance movements in accordance with the text of the rhyme / song will help the baby relax and relieve muscle tension.

"Wind and Tree"“The wind doesn’t stop, the tree shakes strongly” (the baby’s arms and body sway to the sides), “the breeze is quieter and quieter” (hands move more slowly, calmer), “the tree is higher and higher” (the child stands on tiptoe, stretches up ). Rhythmic, clear exercises for the whole body, music games with speech accompaniment (round dances, rhymes, songs) harmonize the state of the child, increase his self-confidence and stress resistance.

A child cannot always explain what is happening to him, but he, like an adult, experiences the consequences of stress. However, parents can help the baby calm down and feel better on their own.

Age features

• Children under 2 often experience stress due to a serious illness or separation from their mother (or other loved one). Also at this age, babies are very sensitive to the state of their parents and can “mirror” (that is, reflect) their tension.
• Preschoolers are also acutely experiencing parting with loved ones and disruption of their usual way of life.
• For an older child, peer relationships or personal inconveniences can cause stress.
• good luck (in sports, education).
• Also, at any age, stress is caused by information overload (television, computer games), situations associated with uncertainty and pain (hospitalization, injections, etc.). Even joyful events, if they are very significant for the child, can trigger the stress mechanism.

Withdrawal psycho-emotional stress in children

Workload modern preschoolers sometimes amazing. They visit Kindergarten, various circles and sports sections. Receiving a large amount of information, children get tired both physically and emotionally. At the same time, they need to be in time everywhere. The loads it experiences children's body negatively affect his health. That is why relaxation exercises are used in working with preschoolers. What it is?

This technique is based on the fact that science has long proven that there is a certain relationship between our body and mind. It is known that in stressful condition a person's muscle tone increases. At the same time, there is Feedback. The removal of mental stress is possible with a decrease muscle tone. This is relaxation.

What is relaxation for children?This is the most The best way relieving tension (nervous, physical and mental), as well as relaxation, which allows you to eliminate the irritation factor. Very useful relaxation for children. After doing special exercises the child becomes calm and balanced. He becomes more aware of his feelings. Relaxation exercises for children play a big role. Toddlers begin to control their own actions and emotions, and also master their feelings. Relaxation allows the little man to concentrate and relieve excitement. Relaxation exercises for children are recommended for all preschoolers. But they are especially important for those who are prone to frequent illnesses, as well as anxious, excitable and hyperactive.

Simple game relaxation for children can be used by educators or parents. Relaxation in this case is caused by special playing techniques, each of which, as a rule, has a figurative name (this can captivate children). Kids perform relaxation exercises, not only copying the movements of the teacher. Children are reincarnated and enter the image given to them. New games are able to interest the child, which allows him to relax well. The effect of the lesson is noticeable immediately by a calm facial expression, rhythmic and even breathing, etc. Relaxation for preschool children is extremely important. Daily exercises included in the daily regimen allow you to achieve a more calm and balanced state. Increased irritability and anger, excessive anxiety and fears, as well as tension are eliminated in children.

In order to emotionally defuse the child, offer him various games. Below you can find a description of some of them.

Relaxation exercises

"Sand Play"The child should sit on a chair, resting against its back. He must imagine that he is on the bank of a river with loose and cool sand. Baby with eyes closed deep breath should like to type it into a fist. Fingers should be squeezed as tightly as possible. In this position, the child should sit for a while. When exhaling, imaginary sand must be slowly “poured” onto your knees. At the end of the exercise, the arms should be “dropped” along the body.

"Pipe". This exercise will allow the baby to relax the muscles of the face. The child must imagine that he is holding a pipe in his hands. To “play” the instrument, the baby must be asked to take as much air into the lungs as possible, and then stretch out his lips with a tube and pronounce a long “oooo” sound.

"Sunny Bunny"This exercise also promotes relaxation. facial muscles. The kid must imagine that a ray of the sun "walks" on his face. First, a bright "bunny" jumps on his eyes - they need to be closed. Then the ray moves to the cheek, forehead, nose, mouth and chin. This playful "bunny" baby needs to be gently stroked.

"Icicle". While doing this exercise relaxation of the muscles of the whole body is achieved. The adult invites the kids to imagine themselves in the role of an icicle, closing their eyes and standing up with their hands up. You should stay in this position for one to two minutes. Then the children are invited to imagine how the icicle slowly melts, warmed by the warm rays of the sun. In this case, the hands should be relaxed, and after that the muscles of the neck, shoulders, torso and legs. Relaxation texts can be applied at the same time. For children, such a "game" will be most interesting. So, during this exercise, the teacher is invited to pronounce the following words: “Under the roof of our house, an icicle hangs. The sun will warm, it will melt and fall.

"Walk". When performing this exercise, the children are seated on chairs. For muscle tension, they must raise their legs and, without touching the floor, “run” and “walk”. And at this time texts for relaxation can be used. For example: We were going for a walk. Hurry, don't fall behind! Everyone ran a little, our legs got tired. We'll sit for a while, but then we'll see.

The texts used for relaxation should help the baby in creating the necessary image, which will allow him to most effectively relax.