I saw this on another woman's blog, and for the life of me, I can't remember who she was! Either way, Lady Who Made This Emotion Thing, if you see this post, please comment and let me know so I can link to you!
My eldest child has a hard time with expressing herself and showing her emotions in a proper manner. One minute, she might be very loving and huggy, and the next minute she will stomp off or rip up her books. There are days that she is aggressive, and will test herself (and me!) by acting out. For example, she might deliberately hold your arm and squeeze as hard as she can just to get a reaction. Now, I know what some of you are thinking, "Surely, there's some kind of medication for that!!" Probably! LOL! Let's not underestimate the healing power of parenting, though! I think a lot of it is simply that she hasn't developed the tools yet to express herself in a constructive way.
Enter the Happy Face/Angry Face poster. Whenever I've seen Maddie get into a funk - whether she is angry that Eva hasn't shared, or that Graedon is hogging all my attention, or even that she is moody because she is tired, I steer her to the poster. We go through the different faces together - happy, sad, angry, silly, sick, surprised - and choose one that fits her feelings. Then comes the talking. "I am sad/angry/etc because ___________". So far, it's worked! I've seen both girls use it with me, and on their own. I've even seen Maddie switch the faces on Eva's poster to match her mood.
Hopefully, this will be a tool she can build on for the future.
1 comment:
I wish I would have had one of these when I was a kid. I'd get a cuff or a flybat on the behind when I acted up. This seems so much more constructive.
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