124: What to Do When Your Child Is Overwhelmed: The ABCs of Co-Regulation

About this episode

The episode discusses strategies for helping children who are overwhelmed, focusing on co-regulation techniques.

Ever had a moment where your child’s reaction felt way bigger than the situation? 🌋 A small thing turns into a huge meltdown. Logic doesn’t land. Consequences do NOT work. And you’re thinking " what am I supposed to do right now?" This is for you! Today I’m joined by Elizabeth Sautter, a speech-language pathologist and author who has spent nearly 30 years supporting neurodivergent kids, families and educators. She’s also a mum of two neurodivergent (grown up) kids, so everything she shares comes from both professional experience and real life. Elizabeth introduces a simple framework she uses with families called the ABCs and 123s of co-regulation . It helps parents understand what’s happening in a child’s nervous system when emotions run high, and what actually helps in the moment. Because when kids are overwhelmed, it’s often not a discipline problem. It’s a regulation problem. In this episode we talk about: ✅ Why behaviour is often a signal , not the real problem ✅ Why reasoning with a dysregulated child rarely works (we’ve all tried though) ✅ The power of pausing before responding ✅ How your calm nervous system helps regulate your child’s I also love Elizabeth's metaphor…

People in this episode

Host: Stephanie Pinto

Guest: Elizabeth Sautter

Topics covered

• co-regulation
• emotional regulation
• neurodivergent children
• parenting strategies
• child behavior
• speech-language pathology

Keywords

• overwhelmed children
• co-regulation
• emotional waves
• parenting
• dysregulated behavior
• speech-language pathologist
• neurodivergent kids
• emotional toolkit

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Get Regulation in Real Time Toolkit

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