What it is
The sensation check is a way of teaching that asks a child to notice a physical difference for themselves instead of accepting a statement from you. Not “breathing slowly calms you down,” but “breathe slow three times. Does it feel different?”
It’s the only teaching format I know that keeps working when no adult is in the room, because the evidence lives in the kid’s own body.
How it shows up for me
My kids push back on almost everything I say. They don’t push back on what they feel. So I’ve started turning lessons into small experiments, and they remember those.