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10 more calming strategies to reduce anxiety

By Missy Ressler

Here is our sixth and final post in Schreiber’s series on The Many Faces of Anxiety. Today focuses on a few additional calming strategies. Please share some of your family’s calming strategies in the comments below. We are all in this together, and your strategies will help someone else.

Here’s the list of all the posts:
Post 1:What is Worry
Post 2:How the Autonomic Nervous System works
Post 3:How worry affects our bodies
Post 4: A little spot of anxiety
Post 5: How worry affects our thinking
Post 6: 10 more calming strategies


Here are 10 more strategies to use to help calm the mind so you can think clearly and the use the strategies discussed in previous posts.

  1. Identify the size of the problem and expected reaction. Most problems are little and we need to have a little reaction. A lot of times we have a big reactions to small problems. First, identify if the problem is little or big and what an expected reaction would be. Little problems are things we can solve ourselves or quickly with an adult’s help. It is expected we stay calm. A big problem affects many people, and it takes a lot of people or a long time to solve it. It would be expected to be upset, but we still need to stay calm so our brain can solve the problem.   
  2. Progressive muscle relaxation/squish and relax. Start with your toes and work your way up to your head by squeezing one body part at a time for 3 seconds then relaxing it.
  3. Adult coloring books, mandalas or any coloring activity.
  4. Relaxing music.
  5. Yoga. Check out cosmickids.com The site also has a lot of mindfulness activities. 
  6. Play with your pet.
  7. Guided relaxation. Think about your favorite place, and use podcasts and guided relaxation scripts for kids that you can find online.
  8. Use ‘I statements’ to express how you feel and what you want. “I feel sad when I can’t see my friends. I would like to Zoom with them.”
  9. Calming bottle. Fill an empty water bottle ½ to ¾ full with water. Add beads, glitter glue, glitter, food coloring, shells, little bit of oil, or anything that would fit into the bottle and survive in water. Use plastic craft glue or duct tape to secure the lid so water does not leak out. Shake the bottle and take deep breaths while watching all the items float around. Our mind and body should calm just like the items in the bottle. 
  10. The Dear Anxiety podcast. I highly recommend this. You can find it here. It is great for parents and kids.

Please share your child’s coping skills in the comments below.

Missy Ressler is behavioral health program supervisor at the Schreiber Center for Pediatric Development.

Family’s connection to Schreiber grows with Rubber Duckie Race

Logan and Nicholas Campbell are almost-6-year-old twin boys with twin obsessions: lawn mowers and Schreiber’s Duckie.

Nathan Campbell, left, and his twin sons Logan and Nicholas, pose with the new Schreiber Duckie mascot. Nathan and his wife Lauren, who live in Camp Hill, have sold more than 200 Duckie tickets to friends there. ‘My wife put up a Facebook post (about selling Duckies), and our friends are buying them like crazy,’ Nathan said.

The boys were in all their glory this week when they stopped in with dad Nathan Campbell, who was picking up tickets to sell for Schreiber’s annual Rubber Duckie Race.

The iconic inflatable Duckie was standing tall outside, and a mowing team was navigating around the Duckie and the Schreiber building with thousands of Duckies inside.

“They love seeing the Duckie,” Nathan said.

The Campbells drive 45 minutes from their home in Camp Hill to Schreiber every week for services. Logan was born with a mild form of cerebral palsy and receives physical therapy and speech-language therapy. Nicholas was born with some developmental delays and comes for PT and OT. They’ve been making the trek to Schreiber for about two years.

“There’s nothing like Schreiber up around us, which is unfortunate, so we’re happy to make the drive,” Nathan said. “We love it here.”

There’s nothing like Schreiber up around us, which is unfortunate, so we’re happy to make the drive. We love it here.

Nathan Campbell

Nathan was picking up 210 Duckies for tickets he and his wife Lauren have already sold to friends and neighbors in Camp Hill.

“They don’t know anything about Schreiber, but they know the boys and want to want to support us,” Nathan said. “My wife put up a Facebook post the other day, and people have been buying them like crazy.”

While their dad answered questions, Logan and Nicholas kept an eye on the big Duckie and the mowers. Then they posed for a quick photo with our new Duckie mascot before heading out the door, on their way back to Camp Hill to sell more Duckies for Schreiber.

Become a Duckie seller

The more Duckie sellers we have, the more Duckies we sell and the more money we raise. And every Duckie dollar is doubled by a matching grant from the Stabler Foundation. Want to join the team? Contact Erica Croce at 717-393-0425 ext. 105 or ecroce@schreiberpediatric.org. Or fill out the online form here.

How worry affects our thinking

by Missy Ressler

In the fifth post in our series of anxiety, Schreiber’s Behavioral Health therapists share strategies for when your child forms worry links and asks “what if” questions. In order to help families who are struggling with scary emotions over wearing masks or seeing people in masks, please share a picture of your family wearing masks. You can learn other tips for coping with masks here.

Here’s the list of all the posts:
Post 1:What is Worry
Post 2:How the Autonomic Nervous System works
Post 3:How worry affects our bodies
Post 4:A Little Spot of Anxiety’
Post 5: How worry affects our thinking
Post 6: Other calming strategies


Missy Ressler is the Behavioral Health program supervisor at Schreiber.

‘A Little Spot of Anxiety’

By Kaity Sollenberger

Today in Post 4 in our series on anxiety Schreiber Behavioral Health therapists suggest a book to read with your child.

Here’s the list of all the posts:
Post 1: What is Worry
Post 2: How the Autonomic Nervous System works
Post 3: How worry affects our bodies
Post 4: A little spot of anxiety
Post 5: How worry affects our thinking
Post 6: Other calming strategies


Anxiety can be a hard emotion for children and adults to understand because it is considered a complex emotion. Anxiety can be a mix of many different emotions, including worry, nervousness, fear and sadness, to name just a few. The interesting thing about anxiety is that is can also protect you. Feeling anxiety can be healthy in small doses, but when anxiety gets too big it can be really hard to understand and manage. “A Little Spot of Anxiety,” by Diane Alber, is a great book geared toward school-aged children that explains what anxiety is and how is can affect your body sensations. This book also suggests different activities and strategies in order to help manage your anxiety.

Remember, children need to be coached and guided through regulation of all emotion, including anxiety. This is called co-regulation. In other words, model how to appropriately regulate through your anxiety. First and foremost, make sure you are regulated, then you can help to co-regulate your child. Our goal is to regulate the child, relate to how they are feeling, and then instruct and teach.

Here is a YouTube link to watch a reading of the book.

Kaity Sollenberger is a behavioral health therapist at Schreiber.

How worry affects our bodies

By Missy Ressler

Today’s video post in our series about anxiety will explain how stress and anxiety affect our bodies and offer some tips on how to slow or stop the worry cycle.

Here’s the list of all the posts:
Post 1: What is Worry
Post 2: How the Autonomic Nervous System works
Post 3: How worry affects our bodies
Post 4: A little spot of anxiety
Post 5: How worry affects our thinking
Post 6: Other calming strategies


Printable downloads

Missy Ressler is the behavioral health program supervisor at Schreiber.

Post 2: How the Autonomic Nervous System works

By Kaity Sollenberger

This is the second in a six-part series of posts about anxiety, presented by Schreiber’s behavioral health therapists. Today, we take a look at the brain and the Autonomic Nervous System.

Here’s the list of all the posts:
Post 1: What is Worry
Post 2: How the Autonomic Nervous System works
Post 3: How worry affects our body
Post 4: A little spot of anxiety
Post 5: How worry affects our thinking
Post 6: Other calming strategies


The last few months have been full of unknowns, unexpected changes, uncertainties and fear for both adults and children alike. These circumstances can wreak havoc on our bodies, specifically our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), which can lead to an increase of challenging behaviors. The Autonomic Nervous System is a part of our brain and body that controls reactions when it believes the body is in danger. If our brain perceives a threat, it will begin to prepare our body for action – our fight, flight or freeze responses.

There are three major branches to the ANS: the Ventral Vagal branch, Sympathetic branch and the Dorsal Vagal branch. The Ventral branch serves as the social engagement system, meaning you feel calm, controlled, safe and socially engaged. The Sympathetic system controls fight or flight and prepares the body to respond to a perceived threat. In this branch, behaviors will begin to increase and the person will become agitated, frantic and possibly aggressive. The Dorsal Vagal branch is our freeze response. The body will begin to feel numb and heavy. The person will have little motivation or a desire to participate in activities.

Think of these three branches as a kind of ladder. The Ventral Vagal branch would be at the top, the Sympathetic branch would be in the middle and the Dorsal Vagal branch is at the bottom. We go up and down this ladder throughout the day. We want to stay more toward the top instead of the middle or the bottom.

Due to all of the changes, uncertainties and fears our bodies are most likely in the Sympathetic branch right now. But good news – there are ways to regulate your Autonomic Nervous System and help move up the ladder to the Ventral Vagal branch!

Some regulation suggestions for children include taking slow, deep breaths; giving them something to chew on, suck on or crunch on; making sure they’re not hungry or tired; helping them with muscle relaxation; reducing noise and dimming the lights. Click on this link for other ideas.

Remember, children need to be coached and guided through regulation. This is called co-regulation. In other words, model how to appropriately regulate through your emotional responses. First and foremost, make sure you are regulated, then you can help to co-regulate your child. Our goal is to regulate the child, relate to how they are feeling, and then instruct and teach.

Kaity Sollenberger is a behavioral therapist at Schreiber.

Part 1: What is Worry

By Missy Ressler

COVID-19 has created a lot of new stress for children and families. Schreiber’s Behavioral Health therapists wanted to provide some resources to help you navigate the daily challenges. We’re launching this series of blog posts on the topic of anxiety. We will publish two a week for the next three weeks. Today, the first post is a video called What is Worry.

Here’s the list of all the posts:
Post 1: What is Worry
Post 2: How the Autonomic Nervous System works
Post 3: How worry affects our body
Post 4: A little spot of anxiety
Post 5: How worry affects our thinking
Post 6: Other calming strategies

Additional resources

The following are links to social stories that could help children better understand and worry less about COVID-19.

Missy Ressler is the Behavioral Health program supervisor at Schreiber.

A Schreiber update from James DeBord

Schreiber carries on 10 weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic

Schreiber President James DeBord

It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 weeks since Schreiber faced the most challenging period in our 84-year history. Thanks to so many of you, our generous supporters, we have been able to weather this difficult phase of an unprecedented public health crisis.

Here’s where we stand as of the first week of June.

The good news

Beginning telehealth services in April allowed us to bring in some revenue from therapy programs in April and May. While providing those services helped, we could only treat a fraction of the kiddos we would normally see.

In-person visits resumed in May, and those have helped, too. Again, though, because of social distancing and the need to thoroughly clean and sterilize surfaces and equipment between every individual session, we will only be able to see two kids per department per hour. Normally, we would see 10-15 kids per hour in the center, depending on the time of day.

We were able to receive Paycheck Protection Program funds that we will use to pay all of our staff for 2.5 months, which takes us into July (the clock on this began ticking when we received the funds in early May).**

** In early June, Congress was set to pass a reform measure that would modify the terms of the program to help small businesses.

We have raised more than $500,000 since mid-March. That includes more than $100,000 from our Phonathon, a record for us, and close to $30,000 from the online version of our Gala auction. The Clark Associates Charitable Foundation also made their expected donation of Derby Day proceeds, even though the foundation’s annual fundraising event was canceled. It was the latest example of the way this community responds when we put out a call for help.

Circle of Friends Academy will re-open June 8, allowing us to resume our Keystone Stars 4 Stars-level child care services.

All of our usual summer camps were postponed, but we will offer an alternative version of summer fun, a Virtual Camp Schreiber that will run four days a week for seven weeks starting June 22.

We kept furloughs to a minimum and have plans in place to bring all staff back by June 30.

Now, the tougher news

The outlook beyond July and August remains uncertain and filled with more challenges.

We don’t know yet what preschool services will look like and what limitations we will have when the traditional school calendar starts in September.

We don’t know how long insurance will continue to pay for telehealth services. That was a temporary adjustment the insurers made at the start of the pandemic.

The number of kids we’re able to see right now will not support our current level of full staffing. Even as we bring more staff back this month, we will still have to limit the number of kids we see each hour in each department.

Edna Schreiber, left, for whom Schreiber is named, is shown in a photo from 1927 seeing her first patient. Edna’s blazed a trail of serving any family that needed her then, and that legacy of service continues at Schreiber today.

In-person fundraising remains uncertain, and we are making changes to our fundraising events as we speak, starting with our Rubber Duckie Race. Watch for a big announcement about that coming June 15.

So that’s where we are. Like so many other for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations, we have a difficult path ahead of us. I wanted all of you to know that all of us here at Schreiber, from the management team and the board to every one of our dedicated employees, will do everything possible to make sure Schreiber will be here for many more years so that we can continue the work Edna Schreiber started in 1936.

Schreiber resumes in-person therapy visits

In some ways, the process at Schreiber on Wednesday seemed familiar. Kelly Grant stopped at the makeshift front desk, her son Keegan propped on her hip. She chatted with Lisa Moore while checking in, then headed back with Schreiber therapist Libby Crockart for a physical therapy session. Donna Nelson came with her granddaughter Violet Styer to do speech therapy with Abby Zell.

Lisa Moore, left, a Schreiber front desk receptionist, screens Kelly and Keegan Grant before sending them in for their physical therapy session. Schreiber resumed in-person therapy sessions Monday, May 18.

Even with these pieces of familiar routine, it still felt strange. Kelly and Keegan had masks covering their faces. Miss Lisa was at a screening station under the portico at the front entrance. She scanned everybody coming into the center. Violet at first refused to try on a mask (Sound familiar? We have some tips here.), then smiled happily when she found one with lots of bright colors.

It was the first day of in-person therapy sessions at Schreiber since March 17, and, strange or not, it felt pretty good.

Keegan is 2 years old. He was born with spina bifida, and he has been coming to Schreiber since November 2019. Miss Libby had him stand next to a therapy table and play with some cars. Keegan would have to put the cars at the top of a small downhill track, slide-step across to retrieve them, then slide-step back to put them at the top again. Later, she helped him stand in his walker and kicked a soccer ball with him as he walked.

“When he first came, he wasn’t crawling — just scooting,” Kelly said. “Now, he’s crawling and scooting and using his walker.”

Schreiber therapists have been able to do telehealth sessions via a computer or tablet for some of our families. But doing telehealth with Keegan would have been difficult. Miss Libby was hands-on with positioning Keegan at the table or in his walker. She watched carefully as he moved to see how his legs moved when he tried to stand or walk.

The session ended after 30 minutes so there would be time for Schreiber staff to clean all the equipment used during the session.

In the speech-language pathology offices, Miss Abby worked with Violet, age 7, on an activity to help her practice using words. Violet happily engaged, although her mask kept slipping off her ears, which she thought was really funny.

“Oh, no, what happened?” Abby said. “My mask fell off again,” Violet said, a big smile on her face.

Violet has Down syndrome, and she had been coming to Schreiber for speech, PT and occupational therapy for several years, Donna said. All of her work with Schreiber stopped when COVID-19 hit.

“She’s not comfortable on the computer, so we really haven’t done any therapy since March,” Donna said, watching Violet and Miss Abby work. “She’s excited to come. She’s been coming here since she was 3. She was here for preschool. We credit speech with how far she’s come. She didn’t say anything when she was 3. She’s doing really well now speaking in full sentences.”

Violet and Keegan were among the first kids back in the building for therapy. The work to help them in this strange but familiar world will still happen, it just might be a little more complicated.

12 ways to help kids be OK with medical masks

By Angie Rice and Bernie Hershey

Now that masks are being worn to prevent the spread of COVID-19, parents are scrambling to help their children be comfortable around people with masks on. A child younger than 4 years old or one with autism relies on seeing specific parts of the face to recognize someone they know, like a parent. Often, it’s the face they focus on to read expression and emotion. Put a mask on, and it’s different. And maybe a little frightening.

If you’re coming to Schreiber or another appointment with medical professionals, you can download a social story from Autism Little Learners, and you can check out the ideas we have collected here to help you and your child manage the possible anxiety.

  1. Make masks fun. Play games with them, like Peek a Boo. Use a favorite toy or stuffed animal and have them wear a mask. Have them play with masks in the mirror. Counting is calming: Set a timer and see who can leave their mask on the longest.
  2. Routines are important, too. Matter-of-fact statements such as, “Now we all wear our masks when we go outside for a walk!”
  3. Allow the children to customize or “design” the mask.  Giving them control over the look of the mask can help reduce their anxiety.
  4. Make videos. Record everyone in your family wearing their mask so that when the child becomes scared or anxious again you can replay the video to remind them.
  5. Use specific masks for Mom and Dad. That way a child can associate those masks with those people.  Personalize the mask with a decoration or even a cologne or aftershave to add another identifying sensation.
  6. Pretend the mask gives you special super hero powers. Superheroes from Batman and Spiderman to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wear masks. Show them pictures or videos to remind them.
  7. Tap into their interests. If they like Thomas the Tank Engine, draw his simple face or even writing the word “Thomas” on their mask will trigger the association with this famous series.  Thomas faces can be downloaded on line as well.  “Paw Patrol” and” PJ Masks” cartoon characters are easy associations with masks, too.
  8. Connect to their favorite sports stars. Use the idea that sports stars often wear mouth guards or helmets as their protection. “Would Carson Wentz play in the Super Bowl without his helmet? No! He wears protection on his face, and you can, too!  So right now, we wear our mask for protection to keep us from getting sick.”
  9. Make it an animal mask. Use a marker to draw simple animal faces and they can pretend they’re a kitty cat or a sloth.
  10. Use a favorite book. Books can be a real comfort to young children, so look for the stories they enjoy to make their mask. “Pete the Cat,” “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and “Where the Wild Things Are” could all inspire a fun mask.
  11. Use a calming essential oil. Wearing masks so close to the nose can feel claustrophobic and create anxiety. Ninette Jackson, an aromatherapist who owns Josiah’s Oils in Lancaster, has been selling at-cost masks with a pocket for essential oils. She recommends “Kids Calm”, her blend. Oils made with spearmint, lavender and sweet citrus fruits can provide a calming effect.
  12. Play with the masks on. Teach them that when your eyes have little wrinkles at the corners and your eyebrows raise up you are smiling behind the mask. Talk to them how their face muscles feel when their expressions change. Have them pretend to be angry or sad or surprised and ask them how their eyes change.  This can be part of playing in the mirror, too.

Angie Rice and Bernie Hershey are occupational therapists at Schreiber. For more information, contact them at arice@schreiberpediatric.org or bhershey@schreiberpediatric.org.