“Do you have buzzing bees? What helps when you feel overwhelmed, or when the world is too bright, too loud, too demanding or oh so scratchy?”

This question comes from the book The Buzzing Bees in My Brain. Written from the lived experience perspective of a neurodivergent child, the book helps children recognise and explore the feelings associated with sensory and emotional overwhelm. In many ways, this book helped shape the Regulation: Discovering Your Calm Program.

Our program aims to help children identify how their brains and bodies feel when they’re regulated or dysregulated. Whether they feel buzzy, fuzzy, fizzy or something entirely different, the program can help children understand how dysregulation feels, in a way that makes sense to them.

Through video guidance and playful exploration of regulation strategies and tools, children are invited to explore and discover the regulation strategies that work best for them. The tools and strategies that are included with the program stimulate a range of different senses, so children can really experiment with a wide range of regulation practices.

This program invites children to take the lead in exploring their needs and preferences. It also supports them to share those discoveries with their families and caregivers so they can be well supported in a variety of settings.

Regulation is absolutely critical to learning, to wellbeing, to focusing and for returning to calm. And so it follows that helping children regulate is one of the most powerful ways we can support our children, and set them up for success.