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Anger Management Skills For Children

Anger is a natural emotion that does not discriminate among age. When thinking of anger management skills, most would associate that to adults and visualize a classroom of people sitting in a circle trying to express their feelings rationally. Perhaps something similar to a scene from the 1993 film Anger Management starring Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson. Anger management skills, however, are very useful in children who have a difficult time expressing this natural emotion.

There are many reasons that children become angry. Some have reasonable expectations and others are harder for an adult to explain. Simply stated though, the anger that a child expresses is a reaction to something else in the environment (such as an event) and the child needs to learn to handle the resulting anger appropriately or disruptive behavior will ensue with some very negative consequences.

There are different remedies that parents, caregivers, and medical professionals attempt to use on children in order to help manage the anger. It is important to note that different methods may work well for some children and have no effect on other children.

One approach is to calmly talk about the anger with the child. When a child becomes angry and perhaps begins to act out or become aggressive, it may be beneficial to stop all activity, sit down with the child, and discuss what is happening. Ask what the child is angry about. Discuss the emotion and physical effects that the child is experiencing from the anger. Talk about different ways to react to the situation that triggered the anger. Help the child understand why he or she is angry and different ways that the child can respond the next time.

Obviously, this will not work on very young children who are not able to reason. In some situations, having consequences will help them to associate having a tantrum or aggressive spell because of their anger with something that they don’t like and want to avoid. For example, if a two year old has a tantrum and throws toys every time he or she does not get something, remove the child from the room or removing all toys. Doing this continuously will help the child learn that the tantrum behavior will result in a negative consequence that the child likes even less.

The examples adults set for the child is a very important factor that should be considered when teaching a child anger management skills. In most situations, when a child continuously sees adults or even other children in the environment reacting in an inappropriate manner with anger, the child will pick up the bad habits and mimic them. Setting an example for the child is very important when helping them cope with the anger emotion. It is unreasonable to expect a child to not be aggressive every time anger is felt when others who are around the child become aggressive or act out because something has angered them.

Though anger is a natural emotion, some of the actions and behaviors that result because of the anger are not acceptable. Teaching a child proper anger management skills as early as possible will help the child to cope with this frame of mind in a healthy and productive manner.