Teaching a child to calm himself
We had a doctor’s appointment this morning and Tin did fabulous considering he had to get two shots. Since I opted for a flu shot too, I went first to show him what a big girl I can be. But one of his shots was a doozy, so after that he decided he knew no words to tell his pediatrician. Except when he did calm down, he looked outside and saw the big sign for TOURO and said, “O” and she was impressed.
She told me the best way to deal with tantrums is to say I am not going to talk to you while you are having a fit, and then to wait until he has calmed down and say, “Now that you are calm, what is that I can help you with?” That this helps to not reinforce the fit, and to reinforce skills for learning how to calm yourself down.
Tatjana said she needed these skills. We probably could all use some lessons in how to curb our temper.