Managing Your Child’s Stress

De-Stress Technique: Listening to Music

Why it works: Studies have shown that soothing music lowers heart rate, blood pressure, and stress-hormone levels. It also creates a mellow mood.

How to teach it: Play different types of music (classical, acoustic guitar, lullabies) in the car or before bed. Ask your child how the music makes him feel: Calm? Happy? “You want to guide him into seeing how music can have a positive effect on his body and mind,” says Lori Lite, a kids’ stress-reduction expert in Marietta, Georgia, and the creator of the CD series Indigo Dreams ($16 each, amazon.com).

Times to try it: Anytime a freak-out looms; middle-of-the-night wake-ups. “Instead of calling for you, they can turn on the CD player,” says Lite. A few picks: the Rockabye Baby! series, with lullaby versions of the Beatles and the Red Hot Chili Peppers ($17 each, rockabyebabymusic.com); for older kids, Classical Kids’ The Best of Mozart ($15, amazon.com).