If you’ve ever FaceTimed a child and watched the interaction go from adorable → chaotic → someone crying in under 15 seconds… you’re not alone.

A friend texted me recently while she was on a video call with her niece (3) and nephew (5). One minute they were talking about rainbows and boomerangs. The next minute?

“[He] closed his eyes and wandered around the living room and then stepped in a bowl of dried strawberries… then he got mad/embarrassed.”

And honestly? This entire chain of events is incredibly on-brand for a little nervous system doing its best.

Let’s break down what might have been happening underneath.

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Kids don’t get “hypersilly”—they get overloaded

There’s a moment in kid excitement where the body goes from happy energy → overflow.

That overflow doesn’t look like stress to adults, but the nervous system treats it like too much input all at once.

For a lot of kids, excitement is a full-body experience:

• Their vestibular system (movement + balance) gets louder
• Their proprioceptive system (body position) gets fuzzier
• Their executive function takes a temporary vacation
• Their emotional system is already dialed up

So what looks like “being wild on FaceTime” is often a child trying to regulate themselves through movement — wandering, spinning, closing their eyes, stepping into things. It’s not intentional; it’s the brain and body version of “I need to recalibrate.”

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The wandering + eyes-closed thing? That’s a regulation attempt.

This is my favorite part of the story.

Closing his eyes? He’s trying to dampen the sensory input.
Wandering? He’s trying to ground his system through movement.
Stepping in strawberries? Unfortunate. But also… predictable.

Kids don’t say “This is too much for my system.”
Their body just acts first.

And then the second the spell breaks — like realizing your foot is now marinated in freeze-dried fruit — shame or anger can pop up fast. That’s not misbehavior. That’s embarrassment colliding with a nervous system already at full capacity.

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So how can you spot this “too much excitement” moment in your own child?

Look for these early-stage cues (they show up before a meltdown, shutdown, or tantrum):

1. Eyes narrowing, closing, or avoiding the screen
A sign the visual channel is overwhelmed.

2. Wandering, spinning, pacing, or “zooming” around the room
Movement = self-regulation.

3. Sudden silliness that feels a little… unhinged
Think: crashing into furniture, talking in nonsense sounds, giggling nonstop.

4. Getting clumsy
Bodies lose precision when the sensory load is high.

5. Irritability right after the fun part
The “crash” is real — both nervous system and metaphorical bowls of strawberries.

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How to support kids when excitement tips into overflow

You don’t need to stop the moment, just help their system find a foothold again.

Here are some gentler ways to anchor them:

1. Reduce one input channel

“Want to turn the camera off for a minute and just talk?”
(or if in person: dim lights, quieter space, fewer people talking.)

2. Add grounding movement

“Let’s do three big stomps — ready?”
or
“Want to jump on the couch while we talk? I’ll wait.”

3. Normalize the moment without shame

“That was a lot of fun! Sometimes our bodies do wild things when we’re excited.”

4. Shift to a predictable, simple task

“Hey, can you find something red in the room?”
Predictability calms executive function when it’s wobbly.

5. Help repair the embarrassment gently

If they step in strawberries — literally or metaphorically — try:
“That was unexpected! Happens to everyone. Let’s clean up together.”

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Here’s the big idea to take away:

Kids don’t act out because they’re “being dramatic.”
They’re communicating — with their whole body — that the moment got too big.

When you can spot the early cues, everything feels gentler.
For you and for them.

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Want support reading your own child’s cues?

This is exactly what I walk you through inside the Little Brains & Bodies Toolkit — how to notice the micro-signals across sensory, emotional, motor, executive, and communication systems so the “strawberry moments” don’t feel confusing anymore.

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