A new post has been published over at the Starlight Baby blog: Effective Ways To Help Toddlers Manage Anger And Frustration Would love to hear your thoughts on this topic below!
The first one is the best tip, right there! Understanding where their anger and frustration is coming from is nothing more than seeing the world from their eyes, and that helps a lot. Identifying triggers is something that helps a lot too.
I go for number 4 and 5: give a positive reinforcements and be a role model. I believe it is a good approach to an angry and frustrated child to let him feel the better than to reprimand or go against his misbehavior. If someone has gotten his seat, it would be better to offer him another seat and tell him that his new seat is better than the other which was taken. Setting a good example is the best way to influence the children not to get angry or be frustrated for anything that satisfied them.
Yeah, just one thing doesn't work by itself, we need to have a whole set of measures to make things happen, to make things change, to create a positive dynamic in the family to help the kid, and positive reinforcements are something very important. Enough of being negative I say.
Very true. Helping our toddler with his or her anger and frustration management involves a complex measure and it also differs from one child to another. So, a combination of ways is also helpful to make it more effective.
I agree with you and I personally believe that setting a good example for our children is among the best ways to help them overcome anger and frustration. In reality, we may be showing them how to act negatively towards certain frustrating situations and they only tend to immitate our behavior. Though its quite hard to control our feelings, especially under extreme stress, we might need to think twice before we act out something because there are little kids watching over us.
I agree with you and I personally believe that setting a good example for our children is among the best ways to help them overcome anger and frustration. In reality, we may be showing them how to act negatively towards certain frustrating situations and they only tend to immitate our behavior. Though its quite hard to control our feelings, especially under extreme stress, we might need to think twice before we act out something because there are little kids watching over us.
Yep, it's a family effort at the end of the day. We usually think that the kid/baby has an issue or a problem, but many times we don't stop to think what's our participation in creating or solving that problem. What can we personally do to solve the issue?
Well I suggest to go back to the 1st step in every problem solving issues which is to determine the real source of the problem. Apart from the triggers, it also has something to do with the child's immediate environment. What he often sees at home, what he watches from the tv or internet, what he hears from his playmates and so on. As family members we do have a great impact on a child's behaviour, so I guess its also better if we could try rechanneling our anger and frustration to other means as well. Writing or drawing is a good example. I have also tried playing play dough or motion sand with my toddler, which made me feel relaxed eventhough I am seeing all the mess which she usually creates when she's playing with it and made me frustrated before. And when I showed her how its so "easy" to clean them up, I noticed she already started cleaning them up everytime she plays.
As the writer has mentioned in the article that every child has a different reason for his behavior and parents should deal them on case basis. However, the issue/s should be tackled as early as possible so the situation solved before becoming complicated.I know a dad who reacts even more harshly than the child which always deteriorates the situation. I think, parents should deal all such problems calmly and with sympathetic mood.
I agree, @Mika . Issues that concern or trigger our child should be addressed as early as possible. Doing so will solve any complications or sources of tantrums later on. And yes, like adults, a child does not want to be addressed harshly.