Virtual Calming Room for Kids: A Quiet Place to Breathe and Settle

A calm room kids can open when feelings run big, after practicing it with a grown-up: check in with a feeling, breathe, squeeze, watch glitter settle, hear kind words or play soft music, then show a grown-up how it went.

Families Kids Calm & regulate Play therapy

3–10 minutesIn person and on video

Free interactive tool

Link copied – paste it to your client

If someone is hurting you or you don’t feel safe, tell a teacher, a doctor or another grown-up you trust. Childhelp (US and Canada): call or text 1-800-422-4453. In danger, call 911 or your local emergency number. Outside the US and Canada, a grown-up can help you find a helpline in your country. Violence, threats or fear of a partner: US National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-7233 (text START to 88788); elsewhere, your local domestic abuse service. Teens and adults in crisis: call or text 988 (US and Canada) or your local crisis line.

Made with care by Mentalyc

No sign-upNothing you type is stored

Use with care

A calm-down space is a choice, not a punishment or time-out.

About the technique

A calm-down corner, or calming room, is a space a child can choose to go to when feelings run high, stocked with things that help them settle: breathing prompts, sensory objects, feelings charts and soothing images or sounds. It has no single originator and comes from classroom, positive discipline and play therapy practice. A virtual version brings the same idea to telehealth sessions and to homes without a dedicated space.

The space itself is a container for skills that do have research behind them. Child cognitive-behavioral programs such as Coping Cat teach children to recognize the body signs of strong feelings and use coping steps, and in a randomized trial that program outperformed a waitlist for anxious children (Kendall, 1994). Dialectical behavior therapy teaches self-soothing through the five senses as a distress tolerance skill (Linehan, 2014). A calming room makes those skills easy to find and practice at the moment they are needed. Calm-down spaces have little formal research of their own, so the evidence for the room is practice-based.

It suits young children and families, in session, at home and in school. A calm-down space should be a choice, never a punishment or time-out, and children usually use it best when an adult has practiced it with them while calm. Younger children may need an adult nearby to co-regulate. If a child needs the room very often, look at what is overwhelming them rather than relying on the room alone.

For therapists: how to run it

Goal

Help a child notice a big feeling, use one calming skill on their own, and notice that they feel better.

In session

Show the room on your screen while the child is calm and try each object together, so it is familiar later.
Ask which object they'd pick for angry, worried and sad.
During a session, send the client link so the child takes a break on their own device, then talk about what helped.

As homework

Parents: save the link on a tablet or phone as part of a calm corner at home.
When the child is upset, they open it, pick how they feel and try the object it suggests.
At the end the child taps how they feel now, picks what helped most, then taps “Yes, I'm ready” (or “Show my grown-up” if still upset) to get the card. Read it together; copy it for your therapist if you like. Nothing you type is saved.

Mandated reporting

Exercises like this can lead to disclosures of abuse, neglect or risk. Know your reporting duties before you start, and pause if one comes up.

Good to know

A calm-down corner is a choice, not a punishment. It works best alongside an adult who helps the child name the feeling afterward.

Worksheets that pair with this tool

Worry Coping Skills for Kids Worksheet

Three illustrated pages with eight child-friendly strategies, from Bubble Breathing to a Worry Box.ChildrenAnxietyCoping skillsBehavioralCBTPsychoeducational+3Free PDF 3 pages

Deep Breathing Worksheet

One page with a paced inhale, hold and exhale cycle, plus guidance on when to practice it.Adults and teensChildrenAnxietyStress and burnoutCBTMindfulnessPsychoeducational+4Free PDF 1 page

Sources & credibility

Method: Calm-down corner (self-regulation space)
Developed by: No single originator; classroom and positive-discipline practice
Approach: Child emotion regulation / social-emotional learning
Evidence: Practice-based (limited trials)Calm-down spaces are common in classrooms and therapy rooms but have little formal research; the skills inside them (slow breathing, naming feelings, self-soothing) come from evidence-based child CBT and DBT.

References

Kendall P. C. (1994). Treating anxiety disorders in children: results of a randomized clinical trial (the Coping Cat program). Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62(1), 100–110. Source
Linehan M. M. (2014). DBT Skills Training Manual (2nd ed.), self-soothe skills. Guilford.

How it was made

Built by the Mentalyc team from the original method and the published sources listed here. Nothing you enter is stored.

Questions people ask

What is a virtual calming room?

A virtual calming room is an online space with calming activities, such as breathing guides, soothing visuals and music, that children can open when they feel upset. Schools and therapists use them like a digital calm-down corner.

Do calm down corners work?

Many teachers and therapists find that a predictable calm space helps children learn to notice big feelings and settle before returning to an activity. It works best when the child has practiced using it while calm.

What should be in a calm down corner?

Common items are a feelings check-in, a breathing guide, something to squeeze, a glitter jar and kind words. This virtual room includes all of these on screen.

What should be in a calming corner in a classroom?

Keep it simple: a feelings check-in chart, one or two breathing visuals, a few sensory items such as a squeeze ball or glitter jar, and a way to show you are ready to return. It should be a choice, not a punishment, and an adult checks in afterward.

Keep exploring

Problem or idea? Tell us (opens in a new tab)

Your game designer

Michael Thompson, MSc

Michael's background combines doctoral training in clinical psychology with research on motivation, learning, and emotional regulation.

More about Michael Thompson, MSc →