Strategy-1

Making the Kid aware about the self-behaviour and emotion

Negative emotion has both extreme ends. Any negative emotion may be of mild or severe. While a mild negative emotion may be accepted to certain extent, moderate to severe emotions must be regulated. In this strategy, the role of parents and teachers is to make the kid realise how he/she looks by exhibiting that particular emotion like anger, sadness etc.

One of the tool to administer the strategy is “Emotion Scale” or “Emotion Thermometer”. The tool may be created by the pre-schools, teachers or parents by adopting a scale from positive emotion, to mild negative emotion, to moderate and severe negative emotions. The scale can then be represented by smileys with different emotions. You may ask Adiuvaret Kids to help you in supplying such tool to you.

How to do it?

When a child is exhibiting very strong negative emotion, make him/ her relaxed by taking away the situation/ person from the scene. Take the kid and make him/her stand under the severely negative emotion represented smiley (which must be looking very rude/ odd/ not acceptable etc.) and tell the child that he/she looks like this when he/she is angry or sad. Then positively ask the child, “Would you like to be seen like this?”.

Sure enough, the kid would say “NO”.

Further ask, how would you want to look like by pointing out to the options in the Emotion scale? Sure enough, the kid would prefer to a smiley in a very positive emotion. This is the point of transition for regulating the emotion.

By such awareness, the negative emotions can be regulated in the child.