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Infant Anger Management: The Secret To Eliminating And Preventing Tantrums

Saturday, March 22, 2014

By Leanna Rae Scott


I:0:T Much of the time parenting "experts," which is to say people who got that way mostly by attending college and not so much by raising children, tell us that kids less than six months or a year old don't have the ability to experience real anger. These "experts" see newborns as emotionally pre-functional. They say that even if babies sound angry they really aren't. They're just instinctually communicating or something. I don't know what these parenting professionals believe begins to happen at this magical age of six months or a year that makes babies finally able to be angry when they sound angry. But I know that I disagree with their theory.

In the process of having and raising thirteen kids, I've discovered a few things about how infants function. I think newborns are real people who experience real emotions. I think they're entirely capable of feeling real anger from the moment they're born. If infants' needs aren't me, they experience very natural human anger. And that anger can and does sometimes escalate into temper tantrums. As well, infants are entirely capable of understanding their caregivers' responses to their anger, and they're easily able to understand whether or not they're getting what they need. If babies regularly don't have their anger needs met, they solidly come to trust that likelihood and become predisposed to escalate rapidly into temper tantrums. If they consistently do have their anger needs met, however, they come to trust that likelihood instead and become predisposed not to escalate into throwing temper tantrums.

Every one of my first five babies threw temper tantrums, but none of my last eight children did. The last eight didn't throw tantrums because I had learned with child number five what needed to be changed in my parenting style. He was fourteen months old when this happened and he was free of temper tantrums within one week of my starting the new techniques with him. These techniques are now part of what I call, "Infant Anger Management."

There's no scientific proof for theories that all children throw tantrums or that tantrums are a normal part of children's development. Also, there are many false theories about what causes temper tantrums in children, including brain chemicals! The most common cause theories, however, are children's: lack of problem-solving skills, low tolerance for frustration, lack of communication abilities, need for attention, and lack of ways to let out emotions. None of these are causes of tantrums. But they are causes of pre-tantrum anger, which, if responded to appropriately by parents, dissipates easily without leading to tantrums. Children who are used to parents responding properly to such anger generally develop patience and do not escalate with their anger.

Responding properly to infants' and children's pre-tantrum anger is the first step of "Infant Anger Management." I tell parents everything they need to understand in being able to totally prevent and totally eliminate temper tantrums in their children, even if they have ADHD, ADD, or ODD.




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