What Is This Resource?
The Self-Regulation Strategy Cards is a 28-page comprehensive toolkit for supporting children and young people who experience emotional dysregulation. The resource contains 24 individual strategy cards spanning five evidence-informed categories - Sensory, Movement, Breathing, Cognitive, and Relational - along with 7 accompanying worksheets and a detailed practitioner guide. The cards are organised around four primary dysregulation states: Fight (high arousal and anger), Flight (anxiety and avoidance), Freeze (shutdown and withdrawal), and Fawn (masking and people-pleasing). Each strategy card is matched to the most appropriate dysregulation type, making it straightforward for practitioners to select the right tool for the right moment. The resource is framed as educational and supportive rather than clinical, and includes clear signposting to SENCO, GP, and CAMHS where professional mental health support is needed.
How to Use It
The resource is built around three core principles: that co-regulation (a calm adult first) must precede self-regulation; that strategies should be chosen collaboratively with the young person rather than imposed; and that the correct strategy must match the specific dysregulation state. Cards should always be introduced during calm moments, not handed to a child in the middle of a crisis. Practitioners are guided to use the dysregulation type guide to identify whether a child is in a Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn response, and then select relevant cards accordingly - for example, proprioceptive movement strategies for Fight states, breathing and grounding for Flight, and gentle warmth and co-regulation for Freeze. The seven worksheets support structured use over time: a personalised Strategies Menu, a Feelings Check-In for regular use, a Strategy Practice Log to track effectiveness, a Co-Production Planner to ensure young people's voices are central, a Dysregulation Observation Record for practitioners, a Classroom Regulation Check-In for whole-group use, and an Adult Self-Regulation Check-In, which reminds practitioners that their own regulated state is the most powerful intervention available.
Who Is It For?
This resource is designed for a wide range of practitioners and adults who work with or care for children and young people, including teachers, teaching assistants, SENCOs, pastoral leads, school counsellors, educational psychologists, and parents and carers. It is UK schools edition, making it well suited to the British educational context, but the underlying principles - rooted in polyvagal theory, neuroscience, and relational practice - are universally applicable. The strategy cards themselves are most appropriate for children and young people of primary and secondary age, with adult oversight. The inclusion of the Adult Self-Regulation Check-In is an important signal that the resource takes a whole-system view: it recognises that sustainable support for dysregulated children depends equally on the regulation and wellbeing of the adults around them. The resource is not a clinical assessment tool and should be used alongside, not instead of, professional referral where significant need is identified.
