The Meltdown Method: 3 Ways to Prevent Tantrums and Keep the Peace
I was talking with Amy, a young mom who was completely exasperated. Her 3-year-old son’s meltdowns were getting more frequent and more intense. When he didn’t want to do something he threw a temper tantrum straight out of a horror show – using a high pitched deafening scream while flailing his arms and legs and turning blue in the face.
This poor mom had had it.
Here’s the problem. Preschoolers rarely understand their emotions, and often don’t even have words for what they are feeling. So giving them language for their emotions is important if we want them to be able to control their emotions.
One thing I know for sure is that caring parents want the very best for their kids.
You want them to succeed. You want them to have great relationships. You want them to reach their full potential. It’s never too early, to start building your children’s self- awareness.….helping them understand their inner thoughts and feelings, giving them a language for what is going on inside them.
This is especially important for parents who want their children to reach their full potential and have an edge in life.
Decades of research shows that children who are more self-aware and have higher emotional intelligence are:
more successful in school
advance further in their profession
land higher paying jobs
have happier long-lasting relationships.
Act less entitled
Show more empathy towards others
In this series of 6 videos, I’ll show you simple ways you can teach your children about their emotions using fun games and activities
If this topic is of interest to you, I’d love to hear your questions in the comment section below. I’m developing the series as we go, and want to make it especially relevant for you.
Helping your children Recognize and name their emotions can help calm those emotions….
The brain science tells us that connecting thought with a feeling actually takes some energy out of the emotion. If you can name it you can tame it.
We start the Meltdown method by teaching their little ones to recognize 4 basic emotions and help them identify those feelings with one word. We use games to do this because when you pair fun with learning – things stick.
Glad, Sad, Calm, Mad
Feelings are good because they give us information about what is going on inside us.
Once they have a basic vocabulary to name their emotions, then we can go on to teach them how to work with those feelings in healthy ways.
Ex. Bedtime Books – use one of your kids’ favorite books. Notice the facial expression on one of the characters and ask – what do you think they are feeling? Have you ever felt that way? When did you feel that feeling? Give room to actively listen to what they share and affirm them for putting words to their feelings.
When Amy started helping her little boy understand what was going on inside of him, and gave him words and a language for his feelings, slowly but surely those temper tantrums decreased in their intensity, and faded into the past.
If you’d like some sample games and activities to play with your child, to help them increase their self-awareness and nurture their emotional intelligence, grab the tip sheet at the link below. (link to opt-in)
I’m Pam Vredevelt, professional counselor and creator of the Meltdown Method. We’re talking about ways to curb meltdowns and raise emotionally intelligent kids in this series. If that interests you, subscribe to my youtube channel and we’ll notify you when the next video is released.
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