Check Your Engine

Helping kids notice what is happening in their bodies

One of the things we wanted kids to learn through the Brain Lab was how to notice what was happening in their bodies before we asked them to do anything about it. We called this checking your engine.

Just like an engine can be running slowly, running fast, or somewhere in the middle, our bodies move through different levels of energy and activation throughout the day. Giving kids a simple way to recognize those changes helped us begin with a much more useful question than simply asking them to calm down:

Where is your engine right now?

From there, we could start figuring out what their body might need.

The engine analogy comes from the Alert Program®, also known as How Does Your Engine Run?®, developed by occupational therapists Mary Sue Williams and Sherry Shellenberger. The program uses the idea of an engine running low, high, or “just right” to help children develop awareness of their level of alertness and learn strategies for changing or maintaining it.

In the Brain Lab, we used this idea as the starting and ending point of the process as a self-assessment and learning tool. 

Slow, Just Right, or Fast?

In the Brain Lab, we taught kids to think about three general engine states.There is no "bad" engine state.... our engines naturally change throughout the day depending on what we're doing, what is happening around us, how we're feeling, how much sleep we've had, and what our bodies need.

🔵 Slow

When an engine is running slow, a child's body may feel tired, heavy, sluggish, disconnected, bored, sad, or simply hard to get moving.

You might notice a child putting their head down, moving slowly, staring off, having trouble getting started, or seeming like they aren't fully present.

The question isn't, “How do we make this child behave?”

We're wondering, “What might help this child's nervous system become more available for what they need to do next?”

🟢 Just Right

When an engine feels just right, there is enough energy to be alert and engaged without feeling overwhelmed.

A child may find it easier to listen, connect with other people, participate, learn, play, communicate, and solve problems.

“Just right” also depends on what we're doing. The amount of energy that feels just right for sitting through a lesson probably isn't the same amount we need for playing soccer at recess.

The goal isn't to remain in one optimal state all day, but to develop the ability to adjust our level of alertness for whatever we're trying to do.

🔴 Fast

When an engine is running fast, there is a lot happening in the nervous system.

A child might feel restless, jittery, tense, overwhelmed, worried, frustrated, angry, or extremely excited. They may need to move, have difficulty sitting still, talk quickly, become louder, or have trouble slowing themselves down enough to think.

Sometimes fast is exactly what we need. Running across a playground requires a different level of activation than sitting down to take a math test.

The skill we're trying to develop is noticing the difference.

Energy and emotions aren't quite the same thing

This is an important distinction when teaching Check Your Engine.

The colors aren't meant to sort emotions into good and bad categories, and a particular emotion doesn't always belong to one engine state.

Think about excitement....a child waiting to leave for a field trip may be incredibly happy and have a very fast (red) engine. Another child can be happy while quietly drawing with a friend and have an engine that feels just right. Sadness can look different too. One child may become quiet, heavy, and withdrawn when they're sad. Another may cry intensely and feel completely overwhelmed.

We're really helping kids become curious about the level of activation in their bodies. 

Do I feel like I'm moving through mud? Do I have enough energy for what I'm doing? Does my body feel like it's going a hundred miles an hour?

As kids become better at recognizing those differences, they can begin learning which strategies tend to help their particular nervous system.

Teach Check Your Engine when kids are already regulated

I wouldn't wait until a child is having a difficult moment to introduce this idea. When we teach regulation skills only during dysregulation, we're asking a child's brain to learn something new at exactly the time when learning may be harder.

Instead, Check Your Engine can become part of ordinary conversations throughout the day.

A teacher might check engines after recess and notice together how different everyone's bodies feel after running around outside. You might check before a quiet activity, after lunch, first thing in the morning, or toward the end of a long day.

Adults can model by participating: “My engine feels a little slow this morning. I think getting up and moving around the classroom might help me.”

Over time, kids begin to recognize that their engine is always changing. That's normal. The goal is awareness, not staying green all day.

Using Check Your Engine in the Brain Lab

When a student entered our Brain Lab, checking their engine gave us a starting point.

We kept a simple Check-In / Check-Out sheet in the Brain Lab along with blue, green, and red markers.

The student decided where their engine was and wrote their initials in the Sign In column using that color:

Blue = Slow
Green = Just Right
Red = Fast

Then they moved into the Brain Lab activities.

At the end, we asked them to check their engine again. They returned to the same sheet and wrote their initials in the Sign Out column using the color that represented how their engine felt now.

It was incredibly simple, which was part of why it worked so well. Kids could actually see the change.

And because we had a record of the colors students chose when they entered and when they left, we could also begin looking at whether the Brain Lab was doing what we hoped it would do. One year, we documented each participant's colors in a Google Form so that we could have data for the NME grant. Our data clearly showed that most students who entered with slow or fast engines were identifying themselves as closer to “just right / ready to learn” when they returned to class. 

The goal isn't to get every child to green

This part matters... if we turn green into the “good” color, kids quickly figure that out. Then we're no longer asking them to notice their bodies; we're asking them to give us the answer they think adults want.

There will also be times when a child uses regulation strategies and still leaves with a slow or fast engine. That's useful information too. The purpose of checking again is to build awareness:

Where was I when I came in?

What did I try?

What happened in my body?

What might I need now?

That process is much more valuable than getting the “right” color.

From noticing to regulating

Once a child can begin identifying their engine state, we have somewhere to go next. If their engine is fast, what kind of input helps their body organize and settle? If their engine is slow, what helps them become more alert and engaged?

Its also important to remember that what works for one child may not work for another.

This is where the next part of the Brain Lab becomes important. Rather than simply giving children a collection of fidgets and telling them to calm down, we can give them opportunities to experiment with different kinds of regulation and begin discovering what actually helps their bodies.

About Check Your Engine

The engine analogy used on this page is based on the Alert Program® / How Does Your Engine Run?®, developed by occupational therapists Mary Sue Williams and Sherry Shellenberger. Their work uses the engine metaphor to teach awareness of levels of alertness and sensory strategies for self-regulation.

The Brain Lab described throughout Therapy-Tree reflects how I incorporated body-state awareness alongside regulation, connection, and reasoning in my work with children in a school setting.

Learn more about the Alert Program®