Get Real with Caroline Hobby · Nashville Podcast Network

Getting Real with Alyssa Blask Campbell about Big Kids and Bigger Feelings

October 6, 2025·59 min·5 clips

Alyssa reveals how changing your reaction to kids' emotions can prevent them from feeling like a personal attack.

Caroline Hobby hosts this episode featuring Alyssa Blask Campbell, an author and emotional intelligence researcher. Campbell's work focuses on helping adults better navigate children's emotions to foster secure attachments. She explains that her research aims to shift how adults experience a child's emotional outbursts, making responses more intentional. Campbell critiques traditional "obedience culture" parenting, where respect is conflated with unquestioning compliance. She argues that explaining the "why" behind rules reduces lying and builds trust, sharing an example of discussing a neighborhood game boundary with her son. Campbell describes four attachment styles: secure, avoidant, resistant, and disorganized. She emphasizes that parents must regulate their own nervous systems before responding to a child's dysregulation. A key insight is that adults often treat children's behavior as an emergency when it usually is not, allowing space for a regulated response. She details the nine sensory systems, including the often-overlooked interoceptive, vestibular, proprioceptive, and neuroceptive senses. Campbell notes that individuals are either sensitive to or seek input from these systems differently, affecting daily regulation. Her husband, for example, seeks vestibular input by swiveling in a chair, while she finds it draining. Campbell recommends a free online questionnaire at seedquiz.com to help adults and children identify their sensory profiles. She shares that wearing Loop earplugs from 4 to 7 p.m. helps manage her sound sensitivity. A teacher reduced burnout by lying in a dark classroom for one-minute sensory breaks four times daily. In schools implementing her framework, behavior support calls dropped 60% after tailoring sensory inputs like flexible seating. Campbell states the ultimate goal is teaching children regulation skills early to prevent difficult rewiring in adulthood. The tone is educational and conversational, blending personal anecdotes with practical strategies. Parents and educators seeking alternatives to punitive discipline will find this episode valuable. Listeners preferring brief, entertainment-focused content might find the detailed psychological discussion less engaging.

As heard by us

A fast, compassionate guide to noticing what each child actually needs in hard moments.

This conversation treats big feelings with uncommon practicality. It keeps returning to a simple but useful idea: children do not all need the same kind of help, and parents have to notice their own patterns before they can guide a child toward calm.

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Want a calmer way to handle your kid's biggest feelings?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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