Rainbow Breathing for Kids: Animated Breathing Exercise

About the technique

Rainbow breathing is a child-friendly way to pace slow breathing: the child traces one band of a rainbow while breathing in and the next while breathing out, with variations such as tracing a star or a figure eight. It has no single originator and comes from classroom and play-therapy practice. The visual path gives a child something to follow with eyes or finger, slowing the breath without asking them to count.

The rationale comes from research on slow breathing in general. A systematic review linked slow, paced breathing to greater heart rate variability and parasympathetic activity, alongside reports of relaxation and lower anxiety, in studies with adults (Zaccaro et al., 2018). Children have been studied less. In one classroom experiment with 122 primary school students in Singapore, taking deep breaths before a timed math test reduced self-reported anxiety and improved performance compared with controls (Khng, 2017). The rainbow game itself has not been studied, so it is practice-based: a playful way to deliver a skill with modest general support.

It suits young children, individually, in groups or with a caregiver. It is easiest to learn when the child is calm, so that it is available later during upset, and works best practiced briefly and often, including at home. Keep breaths gentle: if a child gets dizzy or tingly, they are breathing too deeply or too fast, so slow down or return to normal breathing. Breathing is one coping tool, not a treatment for an anxiety disorder on its own.