Summer Shorts: The Hidden Brain Benefits of Travel with Kids.

Building Executive Function Skills During Travel: Insights for International Parenting

In this episode of the Globally Thriving Families Podcast, host Clare O'Byrne, a parent coach and occupational therapist, discusses how travel can help develop children's executive function skills, including emotional regulation. As part of the summer shorts series, Clare provides practical tips for managing travel-related stress and supporting children's wellbeing during school holidays. She emphasizes the importance of co-regulation, naming emotions, incorporating movement breaks, offering choices, and expecting some level of dysregulation. Clare also invites listeners to connect with her on social media and consider parent coaching.

00:00 Introduction to Globally Thriving Families
01:03 Summer Shorts Series Overview
01:34 Travel and Emotional Regulation
04:38 Supporting Executive Function Skills
04:51 Practical Tips for Co-Regulation
05:51 Name It to Tame It: Managing Big Feelings
06:39 Movement and Sensory Breaks
07:24 Empowering Kids with Choices
08:01 Expecting and Managing Dysregulation
08:25 Conclusion and Contact Information

Resources mentioned in this episode: The Whole - Brain Child by Dr Daniel J. Siegal and Dr Tina Payne Bryson. 

Connect with Clare: globally.thriving@gmail.com

Website: https://www.globallythriving.com

Connect with Clare on Instagram: http://instagram.com/globally_thriving

Book a free 20 minute call with Clare: https://tidycal.com/globallythriving/20-minute-meeting

Transcript

0:04

Are you a parent or caregiver raising your child internationally? Are you curious about how to nurture your child's development? But find all the parenting information out there confusing? If so, you are in the right place. Welcome to the Globally Thriving Families Podcast. I'm your host, Clare O'Byrne, a parent coach and occupational therapist with a passion for supporting children and their families for more than 25 years. Whether it's understanding how to build resilience to practical tips for language development, screen time challenges, and staying calm amongst the chaos, Globally Thriving Families is here to help. Join me as we explore the topics that give you the insights and guidance you need to support your children to thrive. No matter where your family's adventures take you Hello and welcome back to Globally Thriving Families and to the first of these summer shorts series. So while many of us are traveling or changing routines over the school holidays, I'll be dropping a few quick bite, bite-sized episodes all under 10 minutes, hopefully, to support your family's wellbeing. Think of it like some little nuggets of encouragement, insight, and practical suggestions to help you navigate the highs and the lows of parenting in this season. Now, travel tends to bring out all the emotions in both us and our kids. You know, the tears, the meltdowns, the overwhelm, maybe the grumpiness And whilst it can be stressful for us at the time too, for sure, these moments do give our kids a chance to practice and develop their executive function skills. And these are really valuable and essential life skills that they need throughout their life. You may have heard me talking about executive function in previous episodes, and this is the brain's ability to plan, to stay flexible, to control emotions, to prioritize, and to think clearly amongst many other skills. Even before you arrive at the airport. The process of preparing for a trip, the packing and the planning is already developing these executive function skills, giving them a chance to prioritize and use their working memory. Travel is also like a bootcamp for emotional regulation too, which is a really important executive function skill. So emotional regulation is the ability to recognize and respond to emotions. So. Often our kids have these big feelings, and it's not about stopping those big feelings. It's the ability to feel them without getting totally consumed by them. So first, being able to notice them, to be able to name them, and gradually over time learning to move through and past those feelings. And kids are not born with this ability. It is definitely a skill that is learned only through practice. You may even also recognize adults in your life or yourself that has difficulty with emotional regulation at times. So, you know, think about those travel days in 24 hours, your kids are being exposed to waiting to delays, to maybe changes in the plan or the routine changes in sleep and eating habits. Being in a new environment and sensory overload, lack of home comforts. So these situations naturally present opportunities for your kid to practice the waiting, managing frustration and disappointment, and being flexible with transitions or changes. We shouldn't expect our kids to just deal with it and get through it smoothly because their brain is not developed enough for that yet. And this is especially true with our tweens. You know, the nine to 12 year olds whose executive function skills, they're really growing fast at this time. But they're still needing support to help further develop them So travel is giving our tweens, especially some great opportunities to take on some responsibilities for the planning and the packing, the organizing their stuff, and decision making that might happen through those travel days too. So how can we support executive function and specifically emotional regulation when things don't go as planned? So here are a few quick suggestions of how we can look at this. Okay, So firstly, co-regulation. Is something that is so valuable to learn about for you right now? It's basically how we lend our calm to our kids or to anyone when their emotions are too much for them to handle alone. So the way we do that is through our presence by being close to them. Um. Using a calm, soothing voice it may or may not need eye contact as well. And everybody's a little different in terms of what they need for co-regulation. So it's not about saying if you're gonna cry, you need to go and be in that corner, or you need to go to this area and be by yourself. Unless someone is specifically wanting to be by themself at that time, our kids really need our presence to help them learn this skill. Secondly, a concept I love from the work of Dr. Dan Siegel and Tina Payne. Bryson is name it, to tame it. And so this is the idea that when we help our kids put words to their big feelings, this can actually help them to calm their brain and body. It helps them make some sense of what they're experiencing and they feel seen and understood. So if you are stuck at the gate, at the airport and there's a delay and it's going to be another hour, they're starting to lose it. Just by acknowledging that. I, I know you're upset, aren't you? You were ready to get on that plane and get comfortable and, and now we all have to wait longer. It's hard, isn't it? Something like that. It doesn't take away the frustration because that's not the goal, but just being acknowledged goes a long way. So thirdly, some movement and sensory breaks are so valuable. Now, last week's episode was all about sensory supports on travel days. So if you haven't already listened, you can check that out with more details about using sensory strategies to really manage that long travel day. But getting in some movement, um, any at all can really be a game changer, even if it's just getting your kids to, you know, timing them standing on one leg or seeing how many jumping jacks they can do in a minute. Just little micro moments basically. It doesn't have to be you doing laps of the airport. It can just be a minute of something. Fourthly, offer some choices whenever you can give your children a sense of control. And that might mean letting go of some of your usual rules that you have. You know, if you have tweens or teens, let them take some of the responsibility for the decision making at the airport. Going to check the information boards, finding a good spot to eat or sit. Never underestimate the power of these opportunities because it's the moments of agency and autonomy and even responsibility that can actually change the overall picture of the day. And Fifthly expect some dysregulation. I mean, it really is normal. Travel can be so hard on all of us. It really tests us in some of the best and worst ways, doesn't it? Travel doesn't have to go smoothly to be valuable, and actually even at its messiest, it's really building vital skills in our kids. So, I hope this is helpful to you and I hope it's giving you some insights into the brain building opportunities, for our kids, and I'm wishing you moments of calm and connection and adventure over the next few weeks. Thank you so much for listening. See you next time. If anything in this episode sparked something for you, I'd love to hear about it. You can find me on Instagram at globally_thriving, or you can reach out to me on my website. Globally thriving.com Also, if you are curious about parent coaching and if it might be right for you, you can book a free 20 minute call via the link in the show notes, and we can have a no pressure conversation just to find out more about it. See you next time.