Coping Skills Collection

Your child cannot explain it yet.

They have a stomach ache and a clenched jaw and no idea those two things are the same event. By the time it comes out, it comes out as a slammed door, or a kid on the floor, or a flat "I'm fine" that you both know is not true.

Asking a dysregulated child what is wrong is asking them to do the hardest possible task at the worst possible moment. They have to notice a sensation, connect it to a feeling, connect that feeling to a need, and then produce a sentence about it, all while their thinking brain is offline.

So you take the sentence off the table. You give them something to point at instead.

WHO MADE THIS

I am Audra. I fostered for twelve years and had more than a hundred children come through my home. I have also been a MAPP instructor and worked on staff at a foster care agency, which means I have watched a lot of brand new parents get handed a child, a trash bag of clothes, and a phone number.

Every one of these tools started as something I needed on a specific bad night. The body clue cards exist because I had a child who said "I'm fine" right up until she was not. The need cards exist because a boy in my house could not answer a single question after school but could point at a picture.

WHAT'S INCLUDED

Seven complete products. 51 printable pages. $64.93 if you bought them one at a time.

1. Body Clue Cards, 24 cards, normally $12.99
2. Tight chest, racing heart, hot face, clenched fists, legs that will not stay still. Each card names one physical sensation, lists several honest reasons it might be happening, and offers four things to try. Every card includes "something else," so a child is never boxed into an answer.
3. Calm Corner Printable Kit, 13 pages, normally $11.99
4. The posters, passes and labels that make a calm down space official instead of improvised. Calm Corner poster, rules poster, choice board, Calm Down Steps, three breathing posters (box, five finger and balloon), a Feelings Scale, I Need a Break passes, positive reminder cards, a My Safe Place worksheet, and supply labels for your bins.
5. Feelings Cards, 18 cards, normally $9.99
6. Each card covers how the feeling shows up in the body plus one thing to try. Includes embarrassed, jealous, curious and silly, not just the big four, plus blank cards for the feelings your child invents a word for.
7. What Do I Need Cards, 24 cards, normally $9.99
8. A child hands you a card instead of finding a sentence. I need some space. Please stay close. I need to know I'm not in trouble. I don't want to talk yet. I don't know what I need.
9. Calm Choices, 27 cards plus a blank, normally $9.99
10. One calming idea per card, illustrated, so a child can choose by looking instead of reading. Stretch like a cat. Watch the glitter settle. Blow out pretend birthday candles. Listen for three sounds.
11. Regulation Strategy Wheel, normally $5.99
12. One page, seven feelings, four strategies inside each. Happy is on the wheel too, because regulation is not only for hard days. Includes a full color version, a black and white version for cheap printing, and a how to use it guide.
13. Coping Skills Menu, normally $3.99
14. Fifty ideas on one page, sorted into calm my body, calm my brain, create something, move my body, and ask for help. For the older kid who finds cards babyish but still needs the list in front of them. Full page poster plus a two per page half sheet version.

HOW THEY WORK TOGETHER

Most calm down printables start at "pick a strategy." This collection starts where a dysregulated child actually starts, which is in their body.

My tummy feels funny. (Body Clue Cards)

I think I feel worried. (Feelings Cards)

I need some space. (What Do I Need Cards)

I will try the glitter jar. (Calm Choices, the Wheel, the Menu)

I can come back when I am ready. (Calm Corner Kit)

Buy one piece and you get a step. Buy the collection and you get the whole loop.

A note on repetition, because you will notice it: deep breaths, cold water, a stretch and a break show up in the cards, on the wheel, on the choice board and on the menu. That is on purpose. A child at the kitchen table can scan a menu. A child already in the corner needs a poster at eye level. A child mid meltdown can hold exactly one card and nothing more. Same strategy, different delivery depending on how far gone the moment is.

WHO IT'S FOR

Foster, kinship and adoptive parents whose child falls apart before they can explain why

Parents of kids roughly four to twelve, and older kids who still need the visual

Anyone building a calm corner who does not want to design one from scratch

School counselors, teachers and therapists setting up a regulation station

This is not a behavior chart, a reward system, or a curriculum with lesson plans. These are support tools for the moment itself.

HOW TO USE IT

Print on regular paper or cardstock at 8.5 x 11. Cut along the lines. Laminate the cards if they are going to live in a bin and get handled daily, and a corner punch makes them safer for small hands. Keep the card sets on a ring or in a basket the child can reach without asking. Hang the posters at their eye level, not yours.

Introduce all of it on a calm day, not in the middle of a hard one. The first time a child uses a card in a real moment, that is the whole thing working.

PAIRS WELL WITH

The Behind the Behavior bundle, if you want the adult side of the same problem. These tools give your child something to do. That one gives you something to do.

THE DETAILS

Seven PDF files, delivered instantly after checkout. Nothing ships. Print as many copies as you need for your own home, classroom or caseload. Please do not share the files with other staff, upload them to a shared drive, or resell them.

Because these are instant digital downloads that cannot be returned, all sales are final. Everything included is listed above so you know exactly what you are getting. If a file will not open or download, email me and I will fix it.