In times of danger, the most important thing is that the child does not feel defenseless, scared and alone. Follow the 2-wall rules, stay in cover if possible, and use exercises and games. Perhaps such a terrible period of war will not become even more traumatic for the youngest Ukrainians, and WomanEL will tell you how to calm a child during shelling.
ContentBreathing exercisesExercise “Square”Safe placeDakalka Tapping 
Bring your child's favorite toy, water, or another drink your child likes. If the child is afraid, establish emotional, visual and bodily contact with him. Children read their parents' emotions well, so there is no need to try to deceive the child.
Psychologist at the Voices of Children Foundation Marina Drobysheva notes that it is important to talk with children about the war, but to talk in such a way that it does not traumatize them even more, on understandable language, depending on age.
For example, with little ones – because of the game, to calm, stabilize. After all, an adult who knows how to cope with his psycho-emotional states knows how to control his emotions, he can calm a child next to him,
Marina said.
On the Mamovedia portal, psychologists share what games and tactile gestures parents can calm a child at a time when rockets are exploding in the sky and he is scared. Breathing and tactile exercises, various play practices, exercises designed to calm, equalize the emotional state and relieve anxiety – this can work.
Breathing exercises
Do a simple exercise with your child breathing exercise to calm down and restore peace. This will help relieve tension, equalize the emotional state, calm panic attacks and anxiety.
Inhale while counting to seven. Pause, hold your breath, count to seven. We exhale the air, counting to seven, and pause again, counting to 7. The breathing cycle is 28 seconds, repeat up to 4 times in a row.
Exercise “Square”
Practice square breathing with your children, used in stressful situations and panic attacks. Imagine a square and focus on its left side. We inhale air and count from one to four, looking up with our left side.
At the top, we hold our breath, counting again to four and looking to the right. We exhale, counting to four and lowering our gaze with the right side of the square down. We hold our breath again, counting to four and looking along the bottom of the square.
Safe place
Imagine with your child a place where he will feel good, cozy and safe. This is the place that will get rid of all problems.
Discuss out loud every detail in it: how you sit in it, play. The world outside simply does not exist, and you are absolutely safe inside. Feel the smell, take your favorite toy, book or thing there with you, it will always be there waiting for you. Stay there as long as you think necessary.
Dakalka
Within a minute — two people need to continuously shout out loud Yes-yes-yes-yes. Your brain will go crazy, turn you away from obsessive thoughts and return a sense of control.
The word can be replaced with any other that the child likes. The main thing: out loud, loudly and continuously.
Tapping
Stand up straight, feel your body, the ground under your feet. Starting from the bottom up, tap your fists over the entire surface of your legs, front to back. Next, the buttocks, lightly the stomach and chest.
We linger a little on our hands, knocking each hand in turn, starting with the palm. Neck, head and forearm – also with fists, but in a circular motion, without knocking.
The whole exercise lasts up to 5 minutes, it will give vigor to the body, you will feel a surge of strength and a lack of anxiety.
Also, hug your child more – this is very important. You can even swing: sit next to each other and swing together. When the shelling is over, tell your child that he was very brave and did everything right. Like a real superhero…
We also remind you of the algorithm of actions in case of rocket attacks.