The Skill We Rarely Teach Directly as Occupational Therapists - Noticing Dysregulation Before It Lands
Most regulation programs start with strategies like breathing techniques, movement breaks and sensory tools. All of this is useful but all of it is secondary to a skill that gets far less airtime in clinical training: interoception.
A child cannot reach for a calming strategy if they do not yet recognise that their body needs one. That recognition is not automatic. It is a skill, and like any skill, it can be taught, scaffolded and practised in session.
Interoception comes before any strategy
Interoception is the sense of what is happening inside the body. (We're talking about a racing heart, tight shoulders, hot cheeks and a busy stomach that might feel like a washing machine). Recent scoping reviews into paediatric occupational therapy consistently link interoceptive awareness with a child's capacity for emotional regulation, executive functioning and sensory processing. Children who cannot yet notice these internal signals are working from a deficit before they even reach for a coping tool.
In practice, this means we teach noticing before we teach naming, and naming before we teach responding. "My body feels different" is the first sentence a dysregulated child needs to learn to say to themselves, well before "I am frustrated" or "I need a break."
Matching regulation to the nervous system in front of you
Not every child regulates the same way (this is our big emphasis here at Ready Rocket Resources), and treating regulation as a fixed protocol undersells the clinical skill involved. One child's nervous system settles with deep pressure and stillness. Another needs movement, noise and novelty before they can access a calmer state. Discovering what works for a specific brain and body is assessment work, not guesswork, and it is where a therapist's clinical judgement matters most.
This is also where co-regulation does the heaviest lifting. A child's early capacity to shift between physiological states develops through relational co-regulation with a trusted adult. In session, our own regulated presence is doing work long before any worksheet or visual aid comes out.
This has practical implications for how we structure sessions. A regulation plan that looks identical across every client on your caseload is worth revisiting, not because the framework is wrong, but because the framework should flex around the nervous system in the room, not the other way around.
Making room for repair, not just avoidance
We spend a great deal of clinical time teaching children how to avoid dysregulation, and comparatively little time teaching what happens after a hard moment. These moments of "repair" matter and so the reflection, the return to connection, the chance to try again, these are a big part of the process.
Building repair into a session normalises the fact that regulation is not linear. A child who melts down and then reconnects with support has still learned something valuable about their own nervous system, provided we frame it that way rather than as a lapse to be corrected.
Let's move from shame to self-advocacy
Perhaps the most clinically significant shift is a linguistic one: helping a child move from "what is wrong with me" to "my brain is telling me I need something." That reframe is where shame starts to loosen and self-advocacy begins to take its place. It changes how a child relates to their own dysregulation for years afterwards, not just in the clinic with us.
The Ready Rocket Therapy Program License builds each of these pieces, noticing, naming, individualising, repairing and reframing (your clients will meet 'The Deep Void' - a MUCH-loved part of the galaxy for kids to learn about), into a session-ready structure, so the clinical thinking is already scaffolded before you walk into the room.
A child cannot use a strategy they do not know they need. Interoceptive awareness is the skill underneath every other regulation skill we teach.
Ready Rocket Therapy Program License
A complete, session-ready emotional regulation program for 1:1 and group work, built by Senior Paediatric Occupational Therapists.
View the Program LicenseWhether you are a therapist, working in a school, or supporting a child at home, there is something below for you.
Ready Rocket Therapy Program License
A complete, session-ready emotional regulation program for 1:1 and group work. Neurodivergent-affirming, shame-free, and built for the therapy room.
Ready Rocket School Learning Program
A structured emotional regulation program for early childhood and primary classrooms. Ages 3 to 7.
Support Your Child at Home
Books, activity packs, and workshops to support your child's emotional regulation at home. For parents and caregivers of children aged 5 to 12.
