The balloon technique is a practice that can be used in education to teach children a relaxation game. If it is applied when children are nervous or tense, this will help them to control themselves and to stay calm, as well as to stimulate psychomotor skills, body awareness, posture, and laterality.

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The balloon technique is very useful for anyone, but in children, it is highly effective when they have difficulty controlling their impulses. Through this entertaining game, children will learn strategies to relax.

How is this balloon technique done?

To carry out this technique we will need 1 large space (a room or classroom) and several colored balloons. They will sit children side by side, keeping a safe distance so they do not disturb their partner

Use this practice in children over 7 years old.

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To teach this to the children, we take a balloon and begin to ventilate it, while explaining that when we are nervous, we accumulate tension as when the balloon accumulates air, but if the balloon exceeds the amount of air allowed, it will explode.

We explain that if we allow stress to accumulate in our body, we can suffer diseases and, in the future, we will explode like the balloon.

Now we will teach you what happens if we learn to release that tension. For this we return to inflate the balloon, but this time we do not let it explode, we will release the air little by little.

We do it now with all the students in the following way:

Step N ° 1

We will ask the children to close their eyes and imagine that they are balloons and that they begin to inhale air little by little until they inflate.

Then, very slowly, they deflate exhaling the air.

Repeat this step at least 3 times.

Step N° 2

Ask the children to gently open their eyes and ask how they feel after doing this activity.

Step N° 3

They should explain to the children that whenever they feel themselves in a situation of tension or nervousness, they should imagine that they are a balloon and perform this activity no matter where they are, whether they are sitting or standing.

This exercise helps to calm and put a child in peace, in addition to helping to breathe well and relax muscles.

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Another technique that can be used for the relaxation of children is the simulation that they are a turtle, for this we will ask the children to turn upside down and begin to shrink their arms and legs like a turtle when it hides in its shell.

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After about 30 seconds they will literally come out of their shell, stretching their arms and legs.

In the following video we can see another example of the turtle technique, visual and suitable for children:

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With these exercises and relaxation techniques we look for the following objectives:

• Teach children strategies to relax.
• Encourage self-control of impulsive behavior.
• Develop the ability to know, express and manage emotions.

Helping the little ones to know how to control themselves will avoid many problems that will improve during adolescence.