Now this might sound daft but teaching children about the symptoms of anger is extremely helpful.
The symptoms of anger seem really obvious to most adults but some children struggle to identify the bodily sensations that indicate they are getting angry. The reasons therefore for identifying those symptoms include:
1) Anger is a powerful emotion and therefore one that needs some control over how it is expressed so that responses are not damaging. In order to do this a child needs to firstly recognise that they are becoming angry.
2) When a child is 'looking inward' at their physical symptoms, they are more likely to be able to put a gap between becoming angry and reacting. In this time, some of their adrenaline will have subsided, they will be able to engage more rational thinking and will therefore be more likely to make a choice about how best to respond to their anger.
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