Are you familiar with a situation when a kid who always is a real angel starts yelling and behaves badly? If you are a parent, we are pretty sure that you know those cases. Sometimes, kids can make messy even the most phlegmatic parents. Yet not always a tantrum is a sign of bad education or bad form. Do you know what are toddler tantrums and how to deal with them? We have some thoughts to share with you about how to deal with toddler tantrums and what are they.
Main Triggers for Toddler Tantrums
You should know for sure that nothing happens without a reason. And toddlers' tantrums are no exception. There are several reasons why small kids are doing so. Here we can list a couple of them.
- Reason 1. They just cannot cope with the information they get from the world. Toddlers actively form synapses, and for this formation, the child simply needs to rely on what he already knows. That is why so often children from one to three years old demand to repeat the same cartoon, listen to a song in the 30th circle, or repeat the same thing themselves without stopping. If the volume of new information is too large, or it is too difficult to perceive, the child may simply react to the changing environment with hysteria.
- Reason 2. Toddler tantrums are often a way to get to know the world. Or rather, to find out what limits his behavior has. He's not manipulative if he throws a tantrum at the toy shelf in the mall, but he's testing your reaction. Be sure that if you immediately buy this toy for him, the chances are high that the tantrum will repeat in the future because the child will know that this is possible, and this action brings results.
- Reason 3. Toddler tantrums are features of the development of the brain. It is formed in leaps, hence the famous crises of 1 year, crises of 3 years, etc. After the next leap in development, the toddler is already gaining new skills but is unable to cope with emotions. Agree, even adults sometimes have problems with the self-control of emotions, what do you want from kids then?
- Reason 4: Toddler tantrums are the result of a lack of empathy. Sometimes children can behave aggressively because they are not yet familiar with empathy and do not know that by their actions they hurt their mother, family, or others.
- Reason 5. Gadget overload. Today it is quite normal for toddlers to spend time on a tablet. Moreover, parents try to introduce their children to devices as early as possible and buy them GPS watches and tablets. But in reality, a toddler does not really need a GPS watch, because, at this age, children are most often under round-the-clock supervision, but it is very important to control the time on the tablet. When overloaded with visual-sound information, the child's psyche simply cannot cope and hysteria begins.
Now let's talk about how to deal with temper tantrums.
How to Act When Your Kid Lashes Out
There are no all-for-one solutions how to deal with temper tantrums. Yet we can give you the most important tip. Just find the reason and base on it. Try to understand why your kid acts so right now. What can you do to help him to cope with his emotional overload? Here are some ideas on how to handle a toddler tantrum.
- Remain as calm as possible. There is nothing worse than a child and mother hysterical at the same time, then the toddler will only spin the tantrum and take it to a new level.
- Stick to your usual routines. If the child does not have triggers in the form of constantly changing rules and routines, he will feel more confident.
- Don't let your child spend too much time on gadgets. Install a parental control application and turn off the gadget after 40 minutes of work. It will also be useful to control what content the child watches.
- Hug and praise your child often. Gentle touches, support, and emotional warmth will give the toddler support and help reduce the intensity of the tantrum.
- Never scold the child in public and do not let strangers make comments to him during a tantrum.
And, of course, stock up on unlimited patience. The period of toddler hysteria will end sooner or later, so treat it philosophically, like a natural disaster.
