The Thinking Spot

Social and Emotional management is the art of how your child learns to deal with his/her environment both in his/her actions and reactions. When the adult's parenting is even tempered and appropriate, the child grows and copies this style of managing his/her world. However, when the parent is impulsive and reacts inappropriately, so does the child.

The best part about the social and emotional side of parenting a child is that learning the normal way to do it is a skill. Through practice, it's very possible to teach your child how to act in social situations like introducing him/herself to an adult, how to act in a restaurant, how to get along with other children, how to share and feel good about it, how to cooperate in a group, take turns, and play cooperative games. The child can learn how to operate feelings instead of acting on impulse. Children, through repetition, can learn how to handle their emotions in an appropriate manner.

Cooking

When a child sees that a parent is trying to teach them how to cope with the world around them, they open up and learn new coping tools. Once a child sees that huge reward in managing actions and reactions in a positive way, he/she turns to these new coping tools when they are presented with an emotionally charged event.

Children love to be social and they love to learn. Teach them how to be social and emotionally balanced and watch their confidence and independence soar.

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