Toddler Problems; Stopping Toddler Tantrums And Adjustment Approach
Date: Wednesday November 17, 2010Posted in: Family
Dealing with toddler tantrums is considered a nuisance by many parents. However it has been mentioned that a fuller understanding of tantrums will enable parents to deal with tantrums easily such that they won’t be a hassle anymore. It has been the point of view of almost all the experts to consider anger as the major cause of these tantrums. And anger can be categorized into two types; adaptive anger and unhealthy anger. Each type has its own characteristic and specific approaches can be used for both.
Identifying what’s causing those tantrums will be the first step to coping with it. First of all, you have to consider that toddlers are still incapable of dealing with a lot of stressful situations. This inability on their part will lead to frustration and the throwing of tantrums. Under such circumstances, you have to make sure you recognize your child’s needs and help them meet that need. If you’re toddler, for example, is frustrated because he doesn’t know how to play a certain board game, it would calm him down if you can teach him how to play the game rather than taking it away from him or giving him a time out.
You cannot give your child what he wants in all cases however and there are times when you have to call for a timeout. If your toddler deliberately disobeys good rules and decides to throw tantrums just to get what he wants, then you need to deal with him more firmly. Your child must realize that there are consequences to his unhealthy behaviors. This may be a challenging task for you as a parent like you to do but the most sensible alternative for such circumstances is a time out. Time out is designed to ignore your child’s tantrums so that he would realize that his actions will not be tolerated. The more you ignore the tantrums, the more your child will refrain from throwing them.
The toddler who is experiencing these unhealthy reactions is revealing his vulnerability to stressful situations at these early stages of his development. At these times, intense emotional reactions can easily take hold of a toddler’s behavior and render him incapable of controlling them. There are programs like anger management programs which are intended to assist your child become more aware of his emotional states and manage them effectively. Programs of this sort will develop a sense of responsibility to individuals by making them foresee the consequences of their actions. A parent like you can make the system work by setting limits on your child’s wants and allowing him to realize the purpose of those limits.
Adaptive anger appears to occupy a rather central position for as we have seen, it can act as a motivating force, while unhealthy anger can lead to toddler tantrums. Anger can be a useful, signaling feeling, and it can also be a very destructive feeling. The trick lies in maintaining the adaptive instead of the unhealthy anger. Thus we can see here just how important your role is as a parent is in this aspect of parenting.
And lastly, pay more attention to your child’s healthy needs.
