I am not a therapist, a teacher or a psychologist. I am a parent, and that is the whole origin of this shop.
Why this exists
GrowCalmKids started because I went looking for something to help my own child with big feelings, and found two kinds of resources and nothing in between.
On one side were clinical worksheets, clearly written for professionals, full of language no child would engage with and no parent should have to translate at seven in the evening. On the other were cartoon printables that looked cheerful and taught nothing — the kind a child glances at once and never picks up again.
What I wanted was something in the middle: simple enough to use with no training, and interesting enough that a child would actually choose it. I could not find it, so I started making it.
What we make
Printable, instant-download resources for emotional regulation — board games and card games, feelings charts, intensity scales, workbooks and calm down corner materials. Most suit ages 6 to 12, with the ADHD and DBT titles extending into the teen years and beyond.
Everything is a PDF you download and print at home. Nothing needs a login, nothing expires, and nothing stops working when a subscription lapses. You print it, you own it.
How they get made
The test for every resource is simple and unglamorous: does a child pick it up a second time?
Plenty of things that look excellent on a screen fail that test. A chart with forty emotions on it is unusable to a child who is already upset. A worksheet that needs a paragraph of reading has failed before it starts. A game with complicated rules gets abandoned halfway. Most of what I have learned came from watching resources fail in exactly those ways and cutting them back until something worked.
I have no formal qualifications in psychology, education or occupational therapy, and I am not going to pretend otherwise on a website that sells resources for children.
Nothing here is medical advice, a diagnosis, or a substitute for professional support. The frameworks these resources draw on — the Zones of Regulation, DBT skills, social and emotional learning — were developed by qualified practitioners, and I use them as a parent uses them: practically, at home.
If a child is struggling in a way that worries you, please speak to your GP, your school SENCO, or a qualified therapist. A printable game is a useful tool. It is not an assessment, and it should never replace one.
Who uses these
Parents, mostly. But also teachers running morning check-ins, school counsellors, occupational therapists and play therapists — largely because a printable a family can take home keeps working after the session ends.
If you work with children professionally and something here is close but not quite right, tell me. Several resources exist because someone emailed to say what was missing.
Get in touch
Questions, problems with a download, or an idea for a resource — email contact@growcalmkids.com or use the contact page. A real person reads it.
