How the ‘Dragon Song’ is teaching children to self-soothe during anxious times

This story is published in partnership with SoJannelleTV, a magazine show about Filipinos in North America.

With California’s Asian community continuing to reel from consecutive mass shootings in January, people continue to wonder: where does it end?

The Monterey Park shooting was perpetrated by Huu Can Tran on January 21, killing 11 people and injuring nine others. In that shooting, the 72-year-old Tran was reportedly upset that he had not been invited to a dance event. Two days later, a six-hour drive up the coast in Half Moon Bay, 66-year-old Chunli Zhao shot and killed seven people at two mushroom farms. The motive in that shooting was a $100 repair bill his supervisor demanded he pay to repair a damaged forklift.

On the surface, the feelings of jealousy and discontent that led to these tragedies appear to be ones that could be addressed in early childhood. One California-based agency is helping children learn the coping skills that can carry them through the rest of their lives.

First 5 California, which was started after the state passed the California Children and Families Act in 1998, offers a number of programs to help children and their parents during the earliest stages of life, including early literacy and language development, health screenings, and nutrition.

Filipino-American media pioneer Jannelle So Perkins, who is also the founder, host, and producer of So Jannelle TV, recently spoke with First 5’s executive director Jackie Thu-Huong Wong about the work the organization was doing.

So Perkins is personally familiar with the work First 5 California does to benefit parents and children. She said she first learned of the organization seven years ago after she gave birth to her daughter, Lilly Jade, adding that the organization arranged to have a nurse do in-house visits with her after she gave birth.

The name First 5 comes from its mission, which is to create and implement a system that helps children and their families develop from prenatal to age 5.

“It was such a big help to me as a woman who had just given birth. Even through the years, I have been partaking in some of your parenting workshops, and I find those amazing,” said So Perkins in a segment of “So Informed” on So Jannelle TV, which airs US-wide on cable channels The Filipino Channel (TFC) and ANC, as well as on local Southern California digital channel KNET 25.1.

One of the initiatives that First 5 works on is to teach young children aged 0 to 5 the life skill of self-soothing and self-regulation. The organization launched its “Dragon Song” campaign in October 2022 to instill coping techniques in young people that can help de-escalate situations before they get out of control.

“For young children – and I would say for a lot of adults and caregivers – those emotions can feel big and scary and hard to tame,” said Wong. “But when we reflect upon these big feelings and emotions, they start to feel more manageable.”

Among the techniques being promoted are “dragon breathing,” which is a fun way for kids to learn how to slow down their breathing and self-soothe. Wong said self-regulating techniques can help children have fewer tantrums, positively impact their performance at school, and improve their family relationships.

The techniques are also helpful to caregivers, whose own feelings of anxiety can be felt by children even if they aren’t being verbalized, Wong said. That’s why the 30-second promotional video shows both a child and his parents practicing the deep breathing technique.

To demonstrate the technique, So Perkins had her daughter and 4-year-old son Leo sing the “Dragon Song,” showing that the song can be both catchy and helpful in tense situations.

“In the long term, managing one’s emotions helps to improve children’s overall physical health and educational success while helping them become happier people as they enter adulthood,” said Wong.

Wong added that caregivers should practice the dragon breathing technique when they’re still calm so they can use it when they become upset, while reminding that parents can leave a child in a safe space to create distance to calm down when frazzled. – Jannelle So Productions | Rappler.com

Rappler is partnering with Jannelle So Productions Inc (JSP), founded by Filipino-American pioneer and Los Angeles-based journalist Jannelle So, to publish video and written stories from SoJannelleTV about the journeys, successes, and challenges of Filipinos living in America.

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