What to do when your child needs to calm down PRONTO!
When your child is bouncing off the walls and you need an immediate solution to help them calm them down, the biggest piece of advice I could give is to do a CTS. Change the Scenery.
This can be very difficult if you are at a play date, whether it be a bouncy facility, or a person’s house. Some of us cannot literally pick up our child and just walk out. If you can get all the way out, do so.
If you can’t, try even going to the nearest bathroom or empty room….as long as it is a quiet place where you and your child are away from the distractions. Changing the scenery does one important thing that is absolutely necessary—it removes the stimulus. Children cannot calm down when they are literally in the same room as whatever it is stimulating them to get energetic.
Once you CTS you have more control; otherwise, the child will not hear, or understand all the demands you are about to make.
Now, the next few steps:
1. Once in private, take your child, have them face you… ask for them to look at your eyes. If they don’t want to, try a joke like, “Mommy has stars in her eyes” or “Look, Mommy nose is starting to grow.” You need to get their attention quickly.
2. Then, being firm, but not harsh, tell them, “I need you to focus. You need to calm down.”
3. Encourage them to continue looking you in the eye and focusing only you. Their brain is likely still thinking about what is in the other room, toys, pillows to jump on, a playmate that is running around as crazy as they are…so the key is to get them to stop thinking about that for at least 2 seconds so they can verbally hear and more importantly, understand what you are asking of them.
4. You may need to ask them to hug you and hold them for a couple seconds to get them to begin to calm. If you can get them to sit, ask them to sit on the floor. What you want to do is slowly get them to focus and learn to rest their body.
5. Ask them to take a few deep-relaxing breaths and do it alongside them.
-PREP: Another alternative to work on at home is to teach them a song or story that you can say together that will train them to relax.
On days when you are home and you child will sit and relax, take that opportunity to make up this song or story, sitting quietly together so that in situations where you do need a quick response, you begin repeating it. You child will remember, “oh when I hear this, I sit and relax.”
Again, this is something you must do in preparation so that in situations where you need it, you have this tool. Other things to add into this same idea are to carry a small bottle of the same scented lotion that you also use to calm you child at home (maybe for massages). This scent could remind them to relax. Music is also a good tool for this. If you have an ipod that you carry in your purse with a song or two that you often use to listen to during calming time. Put the earphones on your child and ask them to listen… and slowly you will see them relax to things they are familiar with and remind their body to chill.
No comments:
Post a Comment