Anger Management strategies

It is important that students are aware of what makes them angry, how to recognize their own angry feelings in their bodies, and how to calm down.  Children who are good at emotion management can deal with strong emotions and express them appropriately.  Students are learning the anger management process at school through their weekly guidance lessons and supporting them at home will make these strategies even more effective.  The anger management process is the use of calming down techniques and problem-solving processes to manage angry feelings and express them in socially acceptable ways.  Effective emotion management is related to both decreased levels of aggression and increased levels of social-emotional competence.  It is important to remember that when a person is highly angry, general cognitive functioning is impaired, which interferes with reasoning and memory for what occurs during the anger episode.
There are many strategies that children can use to manage their strong emotions.  I focus on three strategies in particular; behavioral distractions, relaxation strategies and cognitive distractions. Behavioral distraction is when children distract themselves from a frustrating situation by switching to a new activity (doing something active, having a snack, playing a game, etc.).  Cognitive distraction is thinking about something pleasant (happy memories, things that make them smile, etc.) and it is another strategy that students can use.  Often this strategy is used more by older children.  Another way to use cognitive distraction is to reframe stressful situations to instead focus on the positives instead of focusing on the negative. For example - if your child is worried about the start of school instead have them focus on the new friends and exciting opportunities ahead of them.  Relaxation strategies (deep breathing, visualization, looking out at nature, having some alone time) have also been proven effective to calm down strong emotions.  It is important to intervene early in children's conflicts and strong emotions so that they can learn to use these strategies to calm down before they are overwhelmed by emotion.  Once your child has calmed down it is vital to take the time to process the situation with them and talk about what happened and how things could have been handled better.  Every child has their own way to manage their anger - help your child find the strategy that works best for them.