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temper tantrums
I forgot to address this one in my last post.
You guys have GREAT ideas on how to deal with temper tantrums and head-banging; thought I'd add another.
My husband's granddaughter used to do a form of this. When she wasn't hurting herself we just stepped around her in the kitchen and ignored her. If I was worried about her hurting herself I put a blanket on the floor underneath her and then ignored her.
Then when we got my son her tantrums would disturb him so much that he would shake uncontrollably. So we implemented a tantrum-place rule: "You have a choice. You may play and have fun or you may pitch a fit. If you pitch a fit you must do it on the bed with the door closed. When you calm down I'll come back in." This said of course prior to the fits and probably without her understanding it. So we would pick her up, put her on the bed and shut the door. When she got quiet I would go in there and bring her out to play. Soon she began going to the bed on her own to throw a fit and then it stopped altogether (well, most of the time).
Oh - and when they gain verbal skills it is much easier to teach them to appropriately express anger. Also, children understand language LONG before they can speak it - so I have made it a habit to always talk to my son as though he understood, even when I wasn't sure if he could.
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