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How Do I Help My Child Calm Down
How Do I Help My Child Calm Down
It is common for children to experience difficulty managing emotions such as anger, frustration, sadness, and disappointment (it is often difficult for adults too!)
While there is nothing wrong with experiencing these emotions, it is concerning when children display behaviours such as throwing, hitting, screaming, yelling, and destruction of property in response to these emotions.
Luckily, there are a few things you can do to help your child to manage these emotions before they start throwing things around the room.
The first step is to teach your child that while it is OK to feel mad, sad, angry, disappointed etc. it is not ok to throw, hit or break things when they feel that way. Teach them that they have other options and that you can help them work out what options will work for them, including:
Breathing Techniques
This is a really simple one – teach your child to breathe in deeply, count to 3, and breathe out deeply again, counting to 3… to learn more, click here.
Stimulus Free Zone
Create a place in your home where your child can go that is free from noises and distractions, so they have space for a break when they feel themselves getting worked up… to learn more, click here.
Physical Movements
For some children, a subtle movement such as squeezing their fists together and releasing them over and over again can really help release pent-up emotions… to learn how, click here.
For more ideas, head over to the “calming techniques” section in the strategies area of our website.
Note that you will need to teach your child these strategies when they are calm (and practice them as often as they can before the emotions get the better of them!) so they know what they can do next time they start to feel mad, sad, angry or upset.
How do you get your kids to calm down when they are mad, sad, upset or angry? Let us know in the comments below!
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6 Replies to “How Do I Help My Child Calm Down”
I remember my own parents using something like a “stimulus free zone” when I was little! And once I grew up it’s something I look back on as quite an effective technique, whether it’s sitting the child down on their bed in their bedroom, or having an allocated area of the house for “time out”. I’ll keep those other suggestions in mind though for when my little one grows up!
These are all tried and true methods that I’ve used with students who had difficulty managing their emotions! <3
yes! as a teacher, these methods are what worked in my classroom. my son is 5 and he often has trouble expressing his frustration, so he goes into his room and screams into his pillow. he comes out feeling much better 🙂
We definitely use the breathe in, breath out technique and it does help! I like the idea of using a stimulus free zone, I might have to give that a try!
This post is perfect for my current season of life! We are using some of these tips with my preschooler. The movie “inside out” is also a great first step to help them identify their emotions.
I’ll have to use some of these tips when my daughter gets older. she’s just 5 months old now, but can get very fussy and is special needs as well