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Tantrums & Parenting

Last week, we linked to a Patty Onderko article that explained there is a pattern and a predictability to toddler tantrums that closely relates to the developing, but still immature, toddler brain. It makes sense that a tantrum would be a primary reaction to the gap between a toddler’s BIG ideas and his or her limited vocabulary to communicate. And that a tantrum is an effective way to communicate a toddler’s ever increasing need/wish to be IN CHARGE of his or her world.

Toddlers need help managing this dramatic stage of growth. Much of what they do in a day is done because their increasingly coordinated, upwardly mobile status means THEY CAN; emptying and filling buckets, moving things from one place to the other, asking to play the same game over and over and over again — all for the pleasure of just being able to make it happen. The process continues until they run out of gas. When the tank is empty (because they’re tired or hungry or worn out), you’d better hope you are not far from home.

At Kids Plus, we believe that while there are predictable patterns to children’s development, every child is unique. Therefore, developing strategies for helping children learn and parents manage are best created in a conversation that takes individual strengths and vulnerabilities into account.  Our Kids Plus Parenting Series of classes offered at The Well will do just that. We’ll be discussing parenting topics relevant to you and your family and developing strategies that fit both the developmental needs of children and families.

Parenting requires a lot of patience, creativity, information, humor, and, perhaps most of all, insight into our own strengths and vulnerabilities — like those magic buttons of ours that kids always seem to know how to find, and to push, on a regular basis! Our Kids Plus parenting workshops are designed to help you find and tap new reserves of all those things. And maybe even some you didn’t know you had!

As we schedule new events, we’ll be sure to post them here.

Diana Schwab is our Kids Plus developmental consultant. She works with parents to help them sort out their developmental concerns, manage significant changes in their families, and find and use all the resources they need.