It is normal that at certain times people come to experience certain types of emotions such as anger and / or anger and Although they are sometimes considered as annoying or negative emotions, they also have an important function in the lifetime. In this case, anger works as a motivation for us to want to defend ourselves from some unfair situation, for example. However, uncontrolled reactions to these emotional states can be harmful, both for children and for ourselves.
For this reason, it is important to help the child from a young age to learn to deal with these types of annoying emotions so that her actions are positive and non-destructive. In this article from Psychology-Online: how to control anger in children, we are going to give you a series of tips to help you achieve it.
All people and in this case, children, must learn to manage that intense emotion that they experience what anger is like so that this type of emotion does not dominate them and they do not easily lose the control. Actually, the bad thing is not that a child gets angry, the bad thing is what he does with that emotion, the action that is accompanied by it since in the worst case it can trigger some kind of
If you want to know how to control anger in children, it is essential that you explain to the little ones the following concepts about the emotional control techniques and anger management:
- Teach them what emotions are. The first thing that has to be done so that the child can gradually learn to manage her emotions is to explain what emotions are. This can be done through examples that are easy and simple for them, reading stories, television programs, etc.
- Learn to identify the emotion. After having taught them what emotions are and, of course, having explained that experiencing them is a normal process, they must be taught to learn to identify their own emotions. For example, they may be asked questions regarding other situations where they have been angry and what identify how they felt, what was happening in those moments when they started to get angry, why it happened that etc.
Something that should also be explained to them through different examples from everyday life and, for Of course, appropriate to the age of each child (it will not be the same procedure to control anger in a child of 8 years that work out anger attacks in three-year-old children) is the relationship that exists between thoughts and emotions.
This means that the child must be taught that before people begin to experience a certain emotion such as anger, anger, joy, sadness, etc. we will always have a series of thoughts related to that emotion first.
Awareness of your emotions and thoughts
For example, when we feel sad, surely before experiencing that sadness we will have thoughts such as: “how bad I am”, “what a difficult situation”, “I don't want to be alone”, “I miss my family”, among many others.
These types of thoughts have the consequence that a certain emotion appears in us, in this case sadness. Therefore, what should be explained to the child is this and obviously the examples that are going to be given have to be designed according to the age and personality of each child. The purpose is for them to learn to become aware of what is happening to them and when they are in a situation where experience anger know perfectly well where it comes from and that it is a product of the thoughts you have about the situation.
Finally, after having explained what emotions are and made aware of their own, we can use a series of positive psychology exercises and techniques to make it easier for them to control anger and learn to control anger in children:
- Balloon technique. Children learn very well through metaphors and in this case we will use a balloon which we will inflate saying that the air that is filling the balloon is anger and we will ask them what would happen if we continue to get more angry and more. Of course they will answer that the balloon is going to burst to which we will answer what happens when we do not control that emotion, in the end we can explode, however if we manage it in an adequate way we will gradually deflate the balloon.
- Breathing exercise. They are instructed that whenever they begin to experience an unpleasant emotion such as anger, they have to do a slow deep breathing, hold the breath for a count of 5 and release it slowly until you start to feel more quiet. They are told that each time they release the air to imagine the balloon deflating, to think about what are thinking and feeling and that little by little they try to change those thoughts for more joyful and positive. They have to keep doing the exercise until they feel calmer and can express their anger without getting upset.
- Don't react impulsively to her anger. Every time the child gets angry, do not respond the same, on the contrary try to reassure him by helping him to perform the breathing exercise until he notices that he is calmer and can express what he feels without getting upset.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
