This Saturday, March 21st, the Regional Office of Education #33 is hosting the 3rd Annual First Five free event for area caregivers and children from birth to five years of age. During the event, activities focusing on balance, breathing, mindful poses, stimulation, and movement will take place to help with self-regulation, explains Preschool Behavioral Health Consultant Lisa Medina-Foshay:
“Self-regulation is all of the things that we do to help our bodies feel calm. Whenever any of us get nervous or anxious, your breathing gets shallow, you might start shaking, and so one of the things that we are trying to teach, not only children but adults as well, is that you have to make sure that your body knows that you are calm. One of the ways to do that is breathing. Once you do that, your body then says identifies you are not in fight or flight and it doesn’t have to be dis-regulated,” says Medina-Foshay.
“We will see children where they might be, we say bouncing off the walls or jumping on furniture, really what they are doing is they are trying to calm their bodies. Their body needs that movement and when we have a lot of activities that are sedentary, that body is not getting what it needs and so that child is doing that their body needs for them to feel calm. When we are in that situation, that is self-regulation,” Medina-Foshay adds.
The First Five event will be held from 10 am to noon at the ROE #33 building in Galesburg, located at 932 Harrison Street.
