Curriculum and training for:

    • Children
    • Teachers & Educators
    • Parents & Family Members
    • Child Therapists, Counselors, Social workers
    • After School Service Providers
    • Any Caring Adult Supporting Children

Offerings

Training for Teachers & Adults
  • In-person or virtual
  • 6 hours of course material
  • Full day or shorter sessions
  • Usually spread out over four 90-minute sessions
  • Ideal for teachers, parents, families, counselors, etc.

Register for a session.

Schedule & Other Options

CLICK HERE
to schedule a call to discuss how to integreate this curriculum into your community.

We can customize trainings for:

  • Professional development 
  • Parent/family groups
  • Hybrid in-person and virtual
  • Workshops focusing on specific topics. Ideal for:
    • Lunch and Learns
    • Introduction to the body of work
Classes/ Groups with Children
  • Ages 3-9
  • 20-30 minute sessions
  • 4-6 sessions to complete the full curriculum
  • Ideal for classrooms and homeschool groups
  • Western NC or Eastern TN
Schedule a Group

We look forward to hearing from you. Click here to schedule a conversation to learn more.

Children & Adults Play Groups
  • All ages
  • 30-45 minute instructional time
  • After school progams, family engagement, library story time, neighborhood group, etc.
  • A meal or activity can be added to the time
  • Western NC or Eastern TN
Learn More
We look forward to hearing from you. Click here to learn more and schedule a group.
Adult Practice Groups
  • 30 minute virtual groups (can be longer)
  • Practice inviting more ease, calm, and stress relief into your body
  • Simple movement and breathing practices
  • Weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly
Learn More
We look forward to hearing from you. Click here to learn more and schedule a conversation.

The Curriculum

Self-Regulation for Early Learners is a curriculum for the supportive adults in children’s lives and for the children themselves. It uses trauma informed strategies and practices to teach people of all ages how to use their smart bodies to experience:

  • Relaxation
  • Regulation
  • Stress relief
  • Optimal learning
  • Playful connections with others
  • Positive mental and physical development for children

Using simple movement and breathing exercises, children and adults are able to strengthen neural pathways of ease and grow muscle memory that increases one’s ability to send signals of relaxation and safety to the brain and body.

Self-Regulation is a skill and capacity that children develop in relationship with the adults around them through co-regulation. Children mirror adult stress and relaxation behaviors, language patterns, emotional states, and postural reactions. Since approximately 95% of brain development occurs by the age of 6, for early learners, every interaction is an opportunity for brain building.

The function of self-regulation skills:

  • Influence brain and nervous system development
  • Cultivate feelings of calm and relaxation
  • Prepare children for learning and social engagement
  • Guide the body to be able to mitigate the impacts of trauma, toxic stress, digital devices, and a seated culture

This curriculum uses animal characters, stories, and experiential exercises to introduce children to the super powers of their smart bodies. Ease Keys are simple exercises and playful practices that children and caregivers can do (quickly) to support their physical and mental health, readiness to learn, and self-esteem (unlocking the smart body’s super powers). These self-regulation movement and breathing practices develop nervous system flexibility and can aid in smoother transitions through the rhythms of the day.

This curriculum is co-authored by Teresa Posakony and Ashley Cooper.
Learn more about Teresa and Ashley

Learning From Animals

Objectives for how this course will impact your body:

Learn to relax the body

When our bodies relax and find more ease, our brain knows it is a good time to rest, digest food, restore our health, soothe our nerves, learn new information, or connect with the people and world around us. Discovering our relaxation reflexes helps to build muscle memory to more easily return to calm and restorative states.

Care for the brain & spine
(Central Nervous System)

Lengthening and mobilizing the spine and caring for the top and bottom of the spine allows oxygen and circulation to get to the whole brain and move throughout the body. This supports neurodevelopment, social engagement, nervous system flexibility, and more. 

Mitigate the impacts of devices and a seated culture

Digital devices, and other tasks done with repetitive sitting and focusing in the same direction, negatively impact our posture, breathing, circulation, and the development of our social engagement and learning systems. Self-Regulation for Early Learners counter balances these unhealthy habits and strengthens habits that are supportive to the brain and body’s ability to sit, move, breath, stand, and learn.

Activate full body breathing

Our brains, organs, and cells love and need oxygen. These simple movements activate the ability to get as much oxygen and circulation throughout the brain and full body as is possible in order to empower physical and mental health. Our posture, ribs, diaphragm, jaw, neck, muscles, all work together to support our lungs and breathing.

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Testimonials

A preschool teacher
(in an area impacted by a natural disaster)

I finished watching video #2. I’ve been moving slowly due to a very demanding work life. I really enjoyed the second session. On the “Soothing Waves of Purring” exercise I began to cry. I didn’t know how much I needed that. I appreciate how much time was dedicated to exploring the central nervous system in this second video. Sometimes as educators we forget that we must model self regulation while teaching it to children. We must first learn and practice for ourselves, and so I appreciate that time was carved out for everyone to do regulation exercises together as a group. I look forward to watching the next session. Thanks for the invitation to this experience!

A Kindergarten teacher
(who has been teaching for more than 25 years)

Using animals to learn about our “smart bodies” and how to unlock our “superpowers” has been beneficial to all of us – myself, my teaching partner, and our students. It has been wonderful seeing how students connect to certain animals, which connects them to a tool that helps them self-regulate whenever they need to. We are able to use the Ease Keys as a class with choices available to meet each child’s needs and some students employ their superpowers without needing a prompt. This is certainly a tool for my classroom toolbox that will be used for years to come. It is easily implemented, quick, and accessible to all learners.

A 2nd grade teacher

My 2nd grade students were super wild and not listening and talking over me. I told them we were going to do a mini breathing break. We did the snake, crane, and turtle. I think it helped everyone come back together and calm down. It allowed me to regain control of the group without having to get frustrated.

A parent

I practice my new moves and sounds almost daily. And it works! I forget when I need it…it doesn’t work! I remember when I need it…it works!

A parent

I wish I had been exposed to Ease Keys as a kid! The content was easy to follow and I learned a great deal more than I already knew about self regulation – including the biology of the nervous system and other ways to maintain healthy functioning of that system.

Self-Regulation for Early Learners is part of a larger body of work, The Power of Ease, by Teresa Posakony.

Facilitator + Primary Author

Teresa Posakony

Teresa is a leader, innovator, and consultant in the Self-Healing and Resilient Communities movement. She works with organizations and communities globally to help us realize our innate capacity to flourish. Teresa is a passionate student, researching at the intersection of neuroscience, anatomy, energy medicine, and somatic (body) intelligence. She loves seeing the change that happens when people discover the dynamic intelligence of their bodies and learn how to work with it.

Teresa’s curriculums, facilitation, and teachings span from early childhood to adulthood, and from community to clinical settings. Her favorite curriculum is Self-Regulation for Early Learners. The animal teachers are joyful, provocative, and wise. The superpowers within each of us get to play! Everyone deserves a chance to fly and to flourish.

Teresa has extensively studied embodiment, movement, and breath practices, including studying with exceptional teachers of Aston Kinetics and the Alexander Technique. Teresa has
an Anatomy Specialization from the University of Michigan. She is a practitioner of ReConnective Therapy and has advanced training in restorative anatomy, coaching, and conscious awareness. She is also a kid at heart and loves to play.

Work with Teresa

Facilitator + Co-Author

Ashley Cooper, M.Ed.

Ashley is a trainer, facilitator, and supporting author for the course Self-Regulation for Early Learners: Trauma Informed Strategies and Practices. She partners with the primary author, Teresa Posakony, to bring this dynamic curriculum to educators, families, children, and learning environments.

Ashley has 25 years of experience facilitating learning opportunities for people of all ages from many different backgrounds: 3 year olds, teenagers, elders, and everyone in between. She’s worked as a teacher, school counselor, social and emotional educator, after school mentor, adult trainer, community engagement facilitator, organizational consultant, and coach/cheerleader/learning/strategy partner. Each of these roles has contributed to her deep understanding of group dynamics, human development, embodied learning, collaboration, and equity.

Most importantly, however, is the fact that Ashley loves children and is devoted to growing a world where all children can feel loved, sleep well at night, and thrive as the precious humans they are. Ashley is big-hearted with a passion for learning, healing, play, and collaboration.

Work with Ashley