Hyperactivity in children can be hard to manage and frustrating for both the parent and child. While hyperactivity may not be cured, it certainly can be managed. The key to keeping your child calm is promoting the ability to focus. Structured exercise allows your child to release physical energy, creative activities provide a channel for emotional energy, and journaling helps your child manage mental stressors.
Plenty of Structured Exercise
Before hyperactive children can engage in calming activities successfully, they need to release as much energy as possible. The most effective way to do so is through structured exercise. Activities such as a family walk, relay race or team sports such as soccer, allow your hyperactive child to engage in the physical exertion he requires while practicing the skill of focusing. Once your child has channeled his hyperactive energy in a healthy way, his body is more prepared to engage in more calm activities.
Arts and Crafts
Creative activities allow your hyperactive child to release emotional energy. Try craft activities that require some degree of focus, such as coloring, gluing objects to paper, painting or jewelry making. These types of activities also are effective in counteracting boredom, which can create an overabundance of unfocused energy in a hyperactive child. The key is to encourage your child to aim his attention at one task at a time. The more he engages in these activities, the better he becomes at managing his ability to focus.
Deep Breathing
Most children do not know how to calm down their bodies, so it is important that they be taught the skills to do so. An effective way to calm down is through deep breathing. Encouraging your child to engage in deep breathing exercises can bring about many physiological and mental benefits. Deep breathing aids the muscles of the body in relaxing and reduces respiration, heart rate and blood pressure. Encourage your child to breath slowly through the nose and exhale through the mouth. Repeat several times. Encourage the use of deep breathing before a nap or bedtime or during times when your child is upset, tired or overactive.
Reading and Journaling
Many times, hyperactive children have difficulty controlling their racing thoughts. An effective way to take control over an overactive mind is through journaling. Writing feelings and thoughts down on paper may help your child relieve internal stresses. If your child is not quite old enough to journal, encourage him to read a book or have one read to him if he is unable to read. Reading or listening to a story encourages the mind to focus on the story plot and uses the imagination in a more directed fashion.
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