How to help kids cope with their emotions?

Everyone, be it adults or kids, have difficulties in expressing their emotions. Though the parents try to help the kids in expressing their emotions properly, still they struggle to do so. For this, the parents must take out time and energy to teach their children how to manage their feelings. This is extremely important and beneficial for them.

Babies are virtually born with no control over their emotions, because of which they are not able to express their needs and desires as well. A child unable to control emotions, tend to suffer more. Some possible ways to help children in expressing their emotions is to pay better attention to them, show care and love, etc.

Ways For Children On How To Cope With Their Emotions: –

When the toddlers reach the age of 12 months, they start exhibiting emotions and asserting their independence. In such a situation, the parents must teach their children child control and what to do when emotions cope up.

Baby toddler Parents talks — Image Source **Pixabay**

In this way, in the future, they will bring these things in handy and will find it comfortable to interact with other people easily. Some of the ways are: –

Talk About Emotions/ Feelings– There must be a child unable to control emotions. In such a situation, this is quite possible that maybe they don’t know about all the different kinds of emotions that they can feel. In this case, the parents should talk to the child about different behaviors and the facial expression that might come, when emotions cope up. Similarly, if they express different emotions and exhibit certain behaviors, talk about what has happened to them.
Give Toddlers The Opportunity To Choose– We all love independence. The toddlers too like to have a sense of independence. The parents should give them an opportunity to choose things they like, which is also a type of child control. Giving them a certain space in life will let them know that you trust them, and also help your kids in making better decisions.
Be Able To Recognize How Others Feel– Not just adults, even kids should know how to read the feelings or emotions of others. They should be able to read the facial expressions and body language of others too. This will eventually help them to recognize how others are feeling at a particular moment. In this way, they will get a better understanding on how to interact with those individuals. Hence, this, in turn, can help them build more meaningful and beneficial relationships.
Teach Children To Wait– For better child control, you must make your child understand the importance of waiting. Patience is a virtue not everyone has, but making them practice this, will take them a long way in making good and valuable friends. It helps the child to self- control, and also impulse control in toddlers. Because the kids are restless, the parents should keep them occupied with something, while waiting.
Identify Coping Strategies– Take out time for your kid and teach them to identify different coping strategies, which they can utilize when they need to gain control. You should make them cope with different strategies because all children are different and they will need appropriate coping techniques for that, to help them calm down. Some coping strategies that might be very useful for kids are listening to music, drawing/ coloring, painting, going to a quiet area, blowing bubbles, drinking water, going to a nearby park, and many more.
Write Stories– As a parent, once you are successful in distinguishing and understanding different triggers that can force your child to lose control, sit down and write a story. This further implies that you write a story, based on the things or situations that upset your child, and what techniques or strategies do they use, that is, child control, to calm themselves.
Practice Self-Control Yourself– Patience and self-control are great virtues. And self- controlling is something which should be practiced by both the toddlers and parents. Children go through a lot of changes, and not being able to express them is something very frustrating, which even annoys the adults sometimes. Teaching self- control to children also requires the parents to exhibit a fair bit of themselves, so that they can then understand their toddler’s emotions and problems.
Catch Him In Control– Praise and appreciation, both can teach a child many things, especially when they try to do something on their own. For example, imagine that your child has solved a tough math’s question. This act, thus, demands praise because they deserve it. In the same way, when you observe that your child is maintaining control, provide verbal praise. As a parent, you would definitely want to make sure that your little one receives the praise and credit that they deserve for appropriately and intelligently handling an upsetting situation.
Practice Makes Perfect– By practicing and talking with your child about the probable upsetting situations that could possibly happen, it will in turn help your child to be prepared to deal with any future upsetting situations. You can successfully do this by performing a role- play to help your child work through different disturbing situations. Ask your toddler once that how would they handle this upsetting situation, before offering any sort of feedback and guidance.
Lead By Example– Children try to learn a lot from others, and by doing this, they often end up by picking mimicking behaviors, either good or bad, that they have developed from others. You would always want your child to learn good things and be a good human being at the end. For achieving this, you have to an ideal role for them and practice what you preach. We, as humans, are bound to get upset. But, because you want your child to be happy, thus, try to be aware of your coping strategies and bring them in use to maintain control.