Everyone experiences anger, and it is a normal, powerful emotion. Since children cannot understand or express it quite well, they may have anger outbursts or meltdowns. However, anger management activities for kids can help them deal with their anger differently, more healthily, and productively. Understand that anger is a form of communication, which often arises when a child’s needs are not met, or someone hurts them. Therefore, it is a misconception that anger is destructive and should be avoided or vent out on others. Hiding or venting out anger in incorrect ways may become destructive to self and others (1). Learning to manage anger can create self-awareness, confidence, and peace of mind (2). The following post gives you some anger management activities for children to help you discipline them in the right way.
15 Anger Management Activities For Kids
Hot chocolate breathing, where they can imagine holding a cup of hot chocolate in their hands. They breathe deeply to take the aroma and then blow out to cool it down for drinking. Children can do a count of five and regularly for practice.
Teddy bear breathing, where you can place a teddy bear on their belly and give it a fun ride through the rise and fall of their breath. Children can practice this when they are lying down to sleep.
Blowing birthday candles breathing, where children are supposed to take a deep breath, bring up a happy thought, and pretend to exhale and blow their birthday candles.
Ocean breathing involves closing your eyes along with your child’s and imagining anger as a fire on a shore. They imagine the ocean waves coming closer and extinguishing the fire as they breathe through their diaphragm.
Take a few deep breaths. Start relaxing the muscle groups one by one–from the forehead to the jaws, neck, etc. Relax the entire body. Get into a calming or relaxing imagination (8).
Anger is an emotion many children are not adept at expressing because they don’t have the right tools and vocabulary. In the absence of the correct expression techniques, most children demonstrate anger through meltdowns, outbursts, and other aggressive behavior. But hiding anger or taking it out on others may lead to more significant problems. Therefore, as parents, you should teach practical anger management activities to kids from a young age.
