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Anger Management for Children

Dhanya Joy
Anger management is the best way to teach children to keep a tab on their negative emotions. It becomes extremely essential in order to avoid aggressive and destructive behavior.
Expressing anger is a normal human tendency, but it should not get too frequent or too violent. Anger can be expressed in various forms by people of all ages, even infants at times.
Children getting angry frequently and expressing their anger in destructive ways has always been an issue of concern for most parents. This is because they do not know how to deal with it in a sensitive way.
Early intervention, and proper management is required to tackle this problem or else it could lead to many problems for children in their teenage and adulthood.

Anger Management in Children

Children facing anger problems don't really realize that it is indeed a problem. This needs to be taken care of by the parents. An effective solution could be anger management. There are various techniques and strategies, with which children can learn to control and better manage their anger.
Parents, too, have an important role to play, as they need to be important role models for their children. The techniques should be implemented at home as well as outside.
If the problem is extremely severe, you can also seek assistance from counselors and support groups. Initiating different techniques in the form of fun activities will allow children to respond and take to it quickly.

Techniques

  • Children learn to express anger in a number of ways from observing their parents. So, to modify this behavior in children you will need to modify your behavior in the first place. If you can present yourself as being calm in tensed situations, the child will benefit a lot and behave accordingly.
  • As parents, you need to help your child recognize that getting violent or worked up on every issue is not good. Help them soothe their anger and teach them to calm down and relax when they know that unnecessary anger is building up.
  • If your child behaves unruly or aggressive, talk to him or her about it instead of scolding or reprimanding. When your child takes note of your behavior meted out towards him or her, the child's behavior will obviously be in accordance with yours.
  • Children and teenagers need a lot of motivation to avoid developing behavioral problems. They tend to react a lot as they have many restrictions. So, motivation and positive reinforcement is  essential.
  • They should learn to think before they act irresponsibly, and consider the other person's feelings.
  • Children need to learn to apologize and accept an apology as well. Anger can leave behind a lot of resentment and negativity if not resolved appropriately. Therefore, teach children to resolve their problems immediately.

Activities for Children

You can enroll your child with a support group which has anger management activities for children. These include worksheets for children, questionnaires, role plays, and discussions that help them cope with anger.
This will be especially helpful in case of children who find it very difficult to speak to their parents about their emotions. Your child will get to learn a lot from the experiences and techniques shared by the other children in the group as well.
You can also teach your child some unique strategies that you think may help them control anger. Teach your children some techniques to calm down when they start getting angry.
Take them away from whatever or whoever is making them angry and teach them a few easy relaxation and deep breathing techniques. It is very essential to help them cope with this problem and for their healthy and bright future.