Anger Management: How to Calm an Angry Child #8

While this anger management post title says it’s about how to calm an angry child, it’s really about how to encourage young children to calm themselves. It’s not a quick and easy method (if there even is such a thing), but it can be highly effective if it’s implemented consistently and if the children are encouraged to try, adapt and experiment. Don’t forget to download the free printable, I hope you find it useful! You can listen to this episode above, listen to it on iTunes or Stitcher, or read the transcript below. Anger Management Anyone can get angry given certain conditions, but some people manage their anger more effectively than others. It’s the same for children. Most young children will get angry, but there are great variations in how often it occurs and how extreme the anger becomes. It might be due to personality or because tantrums generally lead to them getting what they want. It might be due to genetic and environmental factors. It might be the normal process of learning to deal with their own emotions. But it might also be due to speech delays, where a child becomes frustrated because they can’t communicate what they’re feeling or what they want. It also might be due to sensory processing issues, where a child experiences a bombardment of sensory stimuli that is overwhelming and so they lash out. As adults we need to observe our children to try and understand what triggers frustrated behaviours. We shouldn’t just assume they’re naughty, spoiled, tired or seeking attention. If we are going to help our kids learn to calm themselves, we need to narrow down the causes and we need to be prepared to try many different methods in the search for what’s most effective. We need to be flexible When it comes to calming an angry child there is no ‘one size fits all’ method, so just because we had great success with one child’s emotional rollercoaster, doesn’t mean we’ll have equal success with another. Each child needs to find their own path, with our support, and it may take quite some time. We need to be patient, consistent and a supportive, positive ally during this process. In saying this, we must protect all the children in our care, so if an angry child is endangering another, either physically or emotionally, we must certainly step in and separate the children so that both are safe and the situation cannot escalate. How do we implement an anger management strategy? There are 3 steps we can take when implementing an anger management strategy in our classroom or at home. * Teach children to identify and understand their own emotions * Teach calming strategies * Practice, adapt, refine, more practice Teaching children to identify and understand their own emotions It’s difficult for children to manage their behavior if they don’t understand their own feelings, if they don’t understand why they’re getting upset or the consequences of being angry. Experts encourage us to spend plenty of time teaching kids about emotions in general, reading relevant stories and talking about the scenarios and behaviours of the characters. Showing them pictures of children showing different emotions, taking photos of your kids acting out various emotions and using them for discussion. Of course, these discussions need to happen when the children are calm,