The Turtle Technique for Teaching Self-Regulation
The Turtle Technique The turtle technique is a resource used to support young children in dealing with various emotions, such as anger, disappointment, frustration, threat, or danger. This resource was created as a visual tool to support children’s self-regulation and uses the analogy of a turtle that withdraws into its shell when experiencing the various emotions listed. A story is provided that explains the turtle technique to young children and a turtle puppet can be used as well to prompt students to begin the calming practices. Steps: 1. Recognizing that you feel an emotion (e.g., anger, frustration, danger, etc.) 2. STOP your body (i.e., do not engage in any behaviour) 3. Curl into your protective shell and take 3 deep breaths. Think of calming thoughts (e.g., “it was an accident”, “I am a good problem solver”) 4. Come out of shell after you have completed breathing and thought of solutions to the problem Initially, the turtle technique was devel...