“What children can see, they can understand. What they understand, they can trust.”

The Tots Box is a gentle, visual reassurance tool designed to help children feel safe during everyday goodbyes.

It supports children who find separation, transitions, or changes in routine difficult, especially those who feel calmer with predictability, routine, and clear endings.

At its heart, The Tots Box is built around one simple message:

Everyone returns. The box closes.

The Tots Box has been developed with families in mind and is supported by professionals including Portage practitioners, SENCOs, and educational psychologists.

Each Tots Box includes:

• 2 adult tots
• 4 child tots
• 8 colour coded place tiles
• 2 blank tiles as standard for personalising
• Wooden keepsake-style “home” box
• Travel bag

• Quick start guide 

• Reward chart

The wooden figures are called Tots. They are intentionally simple so children can imagine them as whoever they need them to be. Families can customise their Tots to reflect the important people in their world.

If you don’t need all the tots for people, one can easily become a family pet, helping children include every important member of their life.

Many children don’t struggle with being apart, they struggle with the goodbye and not knowing what happens next.

The Tots Box helps by making routines visible and turning abstract time into something concrete. It offers reassurance without needing lots of words and supports emotional regulation through predictability and repetition.

But it does something else, too.

It gently shifts the emotional experience of goodbyes. Instead of feeling like something is being taken away, children feel involved in what is happening. Placing the Tots, seeing where everyone is, and bringing them all back at the end of the day turns separation into something understandable, and even positive.

It can be especially helpful for:

• Children who find goodbyes hard
• Children with separation anxiety
• Children navigating new routines
• Neurodivergent children
• Children who benefit from visual supports

It can be used at home, in early years settings, or alongside professional support.

Children don’t just experience different places, they experience different types of goodbyes.
The colours in The Tots Box help children understand those feelings in a simple, visual way.

Each colour represents the type of separation, not just a location.

Yellow — Busy but temporary places
Shops, appointments, and short outings. These may feel busy or unfamiliar but always end with coming back.

Green — Safe, familiar activities
Clubs, the park, and enjoyable regular places. These separations often feel easier and more predictable.

Rose — People and connection
Family, friends, and special people. This colour helps children understand that loved ones still exist even when they can’t see them.

Aqua — Daily, bigger goodbyes
School, work, and regular routines. These separations happen often and can feel emotionally bigger, but they are part of everyday life, and everyone returns.

There’s no screen, no noise, and no pressure to “talk it through.”

Just a calm, physical reminder that people go, people come back, and routines always end safely.

The Tots Box was created by a parent, inspired by real family life and real children.

It isn’t about rushing children through goodbyes.
It’s about helping them feel safe while they happen, and even learning to enjoy the routine that brings everyone back together.

The Tots Box isn’t a toy, it’s a personal, child-led emotional support tool. Unlike ordinary play sets, it focuses on reassurance, predictability, and emotional safety, not distraction or entertainment. It makes reassurance visible. The Tots Box shows them where people are, and that everyone always comes back home and it’s deeply personal Children aren’t given a character, they create themselves. Each child chooses which Tot represents them and the people they love. They decide and design who is who. This ownership helps the routine feel meaningful, familiar, and emotionally safe. When a child sees their Tot, it feels personal, not generic. It supports emotional regulation, not behaviour control. The Tots Box supports children in feeling safe enough to process big feelings calmly and at their own pace. It’s grounded in real family experience Created by a UK mum of neurodivergent children, The Tots Box was shaped by lived experience and refined through real use with families and professionals. The simple, visual, repetitive design supports autistic children, children with ADHD or PDA, and children who find transitions and uncertainty difficult. It creates a meaningful daily ritual Placing tots, bringing them home, and closing the box when everyone is home gives children a clear sense of closure and predictability, something many children deeply need. It’s a keepsake, not a phase, designed to be timeless. The Tots Box is something children return to again and again, growing with them rather than being outgrown.

The Tots Box helps with separation anxiety by showing children what words alone can’t always explain. 

Children use the little wooden Tots to show where each person is going, for example, Mum at work, them at school. They can see this instead of trying to imagine it. 

When the day is finished, all the Tots come back home and the box is closed. This is closure. 

This shows, in a calm and predictable way, that everyone always returns. By making absence and return visible, predictable, and reassuring for a child’s developing mind. 

Absolutely! I am very proud to say I have backing from educators, therapists, portage, education psychologists and support workers.