Toddler frustration.

Is your toddler behind in speech? Sometimes kids turn to physical outlets when they can’t use words. If that’s your case, definitely start speech therapy right away. If that’s not the case, then you’ll have to be very repetitive with the calm down techniques you teach. In the last we’ve used the Daniel tiger song “when you get so mad that you want to roar, take a breath breath and count to 4.” Now I can just say “take a big deep breath” or “blow out 2 candles” and I’ll hold 2 fingers up and put them down eat time they “blow it out” lol. If your toddler is still physical with you, I’d say “ouch! That hurts mama. If you’re going to hurt mama’s body, then you’re not allowed to touch me.” And get up and move. Chances are they’ll follow you and you’ll have to repeats yourself, but don’t leave yourself there to be kicked or hit.

It’s usually a phase at this age but you have to consistently say “ no” and use a firm voice to get them to stop hitting and throwing. Then I would always cuddle and hold my daughter once she was calmed down. She stopped having tantrums where she threw things around October last year. It’s very frustrating to go through. I would kind of let her cry it out too bc she wanted to let out her feelings alone, and we had to shut her in her room for maybe 10-15 minutes a few times bc of how wild she got but it all worked well & stopped happening.

I usually tell my son to breath in the moment he is frustrated. If he's really angry, I tell him to hit the couch or pillow but not people or anything else. I love that shows like Blippi and other cartoons are starting to showcase breathing, mindfulness and ways to de-escalate while teaching them to become aware of emotions. The emotional charts are helpful too! Posting it somewhere visible like in their room or in the main living area. Keep us posted!