Five Ways to Support Your Child’s Brain Between Neurofeedback Sessions

Support Your Child’s Progress at Home with These Simple, Research-Backed Tips

As your child grows and heals through neurofeedback, the support they receive at home can make a powerful difference. While sessions help the brain learn new patterns, everyday moments—like playtime, bedtime, and how we respond to emotions—can reinforce those changes. This guide offers five simple, research-informed ways you can support your child’s brain between appointments, helping them feel more calm, connected, and resilient.

1. Encourage Screen-Free Play

Play is the brain’s favorite way to learn and grow, especially when it doesn’t involve screens. Screen-free play allows children to develop imagination, practice emotional regulation, and strengthen problem-solving skills. It also offers opportunities for movement, sensory exploration, and bonding. Creating time for unstructured, creative play each day supports the brain’s natural rhythms and reinforces the work your child is doing in neurofeedback.

Tips and Tricks

Set up a space for open-ended play, like LEGOs, playdough, drawing, or nature items. Begin incorporating nature walks or outdoor scavenger hunts into your child's weekly routine. Even 20 minutes of screen-free play a day can create noticeable shifts in focus, mood, and connection

2. Practice Co-Regulation

Children don’t self-regulate in isolation. They co-regulate with trusted adults. Your calm presence during moments of stress helps your child’s nervous system settle. Co-regulation teaches your child how to identify, express, and move through big feelings. Over time, these interactions become the foundation for self-regulation and emotional resilience.

Tips and Tricks

When your child is upset, sit near them, speak softly, and offer to breathe together or hold hands. Narrate your own calm: “I’m going to take a deep breath so I can stay steady with you."

3. Build a Brain-Friendly Bedtime Routine

Sleep is when the brain restores, repairs, and integrates everything it’s learning, including from neurofeedback. A predictable bedtime routine signals safety and helps your child wind down from the day. Good sleep habits support emotional balance, attention, and energy. All keys for brain development and regulation.

Tips and Tricks

Create a simple, screen-free routine with 2–3 consistent steps: bath, story, quiet music. Set the lights low and avoid stimulating activities in the hour before bed. Consistency is key, even on weekends

4. Support Nutrition for Brain Health

What your child eats affects how their brain functions. Stable blood sugar, adequate hydration, and key nutrients help regulate mood, attention, and energy. Balanced meals support the nervous system and can even enhance neurofeedback outcomes by keeping the brain more responsive and resilient.

Tips and Tricks

Start the day with a protein-rich breakfast. Offer whole foods with color and crunch, like apple slices, carrots, or trail mix. Involve your child in choosing snacks for the week. Make hydration fun with silly straws or fruit-infused water.

5. Create Calm with Rhythmic and Sensory Input

Rhythmic movement and sensory activities can help calm an overwhelmed brain or energize a sluggish one. These types of input help regulate the nervous system and improve focus, making them excellent tools to use at transitions, after school, or before appointments.

Tips and Tricks

Dance together for 5 minutes to a favorite upbeat song, or bounce on a yoga ball while reading. Swings, rocking chairs, or even chewing crunchy foods can offer calming sensory input. Build “reset moments” into your day, like a 5-minute music break after school.

Contact Us

Supporting your child’s brain between neurofeedback sessions is a powerful step, and you don’t have to do it alone. If you or someone you love is navigating the effects of attention challenges, anxiety, or emotional dysregulation, we’re here to help.  If you are new to neurofeedback, schedule a free consultation with one of our board-certified neurotherapists to discuss a treatment plan that is right for you. Feel free to give us a call at (720) 531-0265 for our Wheat Ridge office, or (303) 670-3931 for our Evergreen office. We look forward to helping you reach your peak performance.

Check out our website for more information: https://www.coneurofeedback.com/