Highly Sensitive and Gifted? Meltdowns and Teacher's Favorite?
By: Diane Malik Published on: 07/01/2026I have never emailed in to an advice column before, but after reading your blogs for the past year, I thought you might be the best person to ask this question, as it’s a bit odd. My daughter has me so stressed out. I am questioning if I am still a good parent. She is both the “best” and the “worst” in the class in terms of her behavior and I don’t understand why! I’m the mother of three children: A 22-year-old boy and two preschool-aged twin girls. The twin girls were not planned, but my husband and I are delighted to have the opportunity to have girls, and twins at that. Maya and Maria are both amazing and delightful—they’re bright, curious, and completely charming. However, I feel they are significantly harder to parent than my son. My son, George, was like any other preschooler. George would have days when he was delighted to go to school and days when he wasn’t, but he would generally hop out of the car and race to the playground to play with his friends. I often had to chase after him to bring him his coat and his snack. He was outgoing, social, and engaged.
Emotional regulation for you, your child and your classroom: How to tell if your BrainMoves practice is effective
By: Diane Malik Published on: 20/12/2025Today, we will take a dive into emotional regulation and how to determine if someone is emotionally regulated or simply shut down. We will define what a regulated individual looks like and discuss how to measure somatic regulation before and after doing a BrainMoves movement. Let’s start by defining what emotional regulation looks like. Is a regulated individual someone who doesn't feel emotions strongly? Can a regulated individual have outbursts of excitement or strong feelings? To be emotionally regulated is not to be devoid of feeling, but rather to experience a balanced range of emotions.
BrainMoves and the Neurodiverse Child: 5 Movements for Everyday Life
By: Diane Malik Published on: 10/12/2025In our periodic series about how to use BrainMoves in real life, I’d like to share an example. Over the next few months, I’ve decided to give examples of how I think about using BrainMoves to help different types of students and learners. As you may recall from earlier classes and posts, I work with a variety of different populations. With my elementary-aged students, I often see individuals with unidentified learning differences and/or behavioral challenges. Often, they’re in my afterschool program because they have concerned or engaged parents who want to make sure that they’re providing the best for their child, no matter how their brains are wired. They understand that enrichment programs like STEM, afterschool cooking, or physical activity will help their child integrate what they have learned and be calmer. This is true because it’s based upon the same principle that BrainMoves movements are based upon: Movement and engagement are what our bodies are designed to do.
Emotional Regulation & BrainMoves
By: Diane Malik Published on: 17/11/2025On the BrainMoves blog, we often talk about feeling more focused, more peaceful, more content, and more able to learn. A frequent topic of conversation among educators, parents, and those interested in neurodiversity is the concept of emotional regulation. Like many terms that have searchability, emotional regulation runs the risk of becoming clickbait and is not frequently defined. Emotional regulation means developing emotions that are fully formed and can be identified, but are not extreme. It means that when an individual feels they’re reaching one of the polar edges of their emotional experience, they can bring themselves back to center. This can be done through grounding activities, motions, and movements. At its core, BrainMoves is all about emotional regulation and integrating the physical and mental experience. This is the reason why BrainMoves is so incredibly useful for preschoolers and kindergarteners, who sometimes lack the ability to express how they’re feeling except through their behavior.
