The ADHD Smarter Parenting‘s Podcast
Kids & Family:Parenting
If your child experiences extreme emotional responses to small events, such as spilling their milk or getting touched, they may be experiencing emotional dysregulation.
Emotional dysregulation means that their brain has difficulty distinguishing between events and their severity. In simple terms, it means that their brain often equates all experiences such as spilling their milk or losing a significant game with the same seriousness putting their body into fight or flight.
While it can be challenging to remember when your child is in the middle of a tantrum, emotional dysregulation is not a lack of parenting skills or a child being disrespectful to you as a parent.
When a child is experiencing emotional dysregulation, your goal as a parent should be to help them understand what is happening and give them tools to calm down and refocus. The behavior skill of Effective Praise does just that as it allows your child's brain to pause and reset by acknowledging that you are present and that you are here to help.
While it may seem counterintuitive to give your child praise while throwing a tantrum as you don't want to encourage their negative behavior. Effective Praise refocuses where your energy is being placed and keeps you from being drawn into your child's fight or flight response. Instead of focusing on what they are doing wrong, which only adds to their fight or flight response, you acknowledge their emotions while giving them something good to focus on instead of the strong negative emotional response they are experiencing.
For example, during a tantrum, a child may pause to take a breath, sit down, lower their voice, throw something with less force, etc. All of those things are positives that can--and should be--acknowledge.
When parents use Effective Praise to deal with emotional dysregulation, they will see changes in how they respond and how their child responds to the situation.
You can find more about Effective Praise on SmarterParenting.com.
If you need help knowing what to praise your child for, our Parenting Coaches are here to help. Sign up for Parenting Coaching and we can create an individualized plan for you.
Ep. #211: We Are Making Changes to Serve You Better
Ep #210: Disciplining Your Child Calmly and Effectively
Ep #209: A Nuanced Approach to Effective Consequences
Ep #208: Role-playing--the secret sauce for changing a child’s brain
Ep # 207: Effective Praise: The Magic Wand Nobody is Looking For
Ep #206: When one child take the all the focus and attention
Ep# 205: Having Hard Conversations About Safety
Ep #204: ADHD and violent behavior
Ep #203: 5 Tips for dealing with meltdowns
Ep #202: Helping ADHD kids discover their superpowers with Isaac Eaves
Ep #201: New Challenge: Electronics and Children
Ep #200: Using Effective Communication
Ep #199: Breaking down Role-plays
Ep #198:Why consequences aren’t working
Ep 197: Answering More Parenting Questions
Ep #196: Answering your parenting questions
Ep #195: Teaching kids with ADHD how to set goals
Ep# 194: How to be more clear using Observe and Describe
Ep #193: Using the ABC’s of Behavior to understand your child’s behavior
Ep #192: Creating family rules around screen time
Join Podbean Ads Marketplace and connect with engaged listeners.
Advertise Today
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Dr. Laura Call of the Day
Focus on the Family Broadcast
Good Inside with Dr. Becky
The War of the Worlds
A Tale of Two Cities
Raising Good Humans
Ask Lisa: The Psychology of Parenting