Guide: Understanding Safety: A Guide for Parents and Children

This downloadable worksheet is designed to help children and parents explore what it truly means to feel safe. Through clear psychoeducation and a guided “Safe Room” drawing activity, families are supported to understand how safety affects behaviour, emotional regulation and engagement.

The resource begins with an accessible explanation of how the nervous system responds to safety and threat, helping parents reframe behaviour as communication rather than defiance. It then gently guides children and adults to explore what safety and unsafety feel like in their bodies, with structured prompts to encourage shared reflection.

The Safe Room activity allows children to design an imaginary space where they feel completely secure, considering sensory needs, proximity to others, lighting, sound, and control. A unique “control panel” section helps uncover what restores calm and what disrupts it. The final section supports families to translate this understanding into small, realistic changes in everyday environments.

This resource is particularly supportive for autistic children and those who experience sensory overwhelm, though it can be adapted for any child who struggles with regulation, anxiety or emotional safety.

You can download this worksheet to print or view at your own pace, here.