Shifting Our Approach Towards Children
Whether it's our own children or your students, these are great ways to always validate their feelings while also ensuring you are keeping them safe and modeling to balance the " I love you but no" action.
Try one of these strategies when connecting with your child/student.
Finding the best way to say yes without making your child feel like their feelings are not valued while still getting the job done.
Seeing our child/student cry can be heartbreaking. Use these four simple steps to find a solution while connecting with them.
Unlearning urgency is so important. If we were to give warnings and a heads up, tend to respond so much better.
Being specific with directions or celebrations give kids an opportunity to feel proud of decisions they make and also learn what behaviors they can work on.
Small gestures of affirmation can go such a long way, especially when difficult situations or redirecting occurs.
These small shifts in verbiage can change the way the child feels and responds.
Setting boundaries even with your own child, student, or classroom is so important. You are able to validate their feelings and yours while also addressing the challenges.
It's always okay to say "no" but adding the why and being specific is so important so your child/student understands.
Student/Child safety is always a priority. Give them alternatives but also empower others around them to be assertive and to keep one another safe.
As irritating and frustrating it must be when a child/student responds to you with a "no" I am working on not being reactive and instead leading with curiosity and intention to better understand their response.
"I hear you.. I'm listening" is my favorite response. This allows us to move on the issue or the cause of the crying to better understand them.
I love how many options you can give a child when they are upset. Whether it's them changing their verbiage, giving them a heads up, or a different option at the time.
As annoying it can be to get interrupted when speaking with and adult or someone else. By addressing it any of these ways, we are modeling compassion while redirecting them.
Validate, empower, and support 🫶🏽
Remember to be specific and to state the desired outcome.
Shifting from statements to questions to get down to the root of the problem.