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Further Reading: Cultivating Emotional Regulation in Children

Further Reading and Additional Resources

Raising Emotion Intelligent Kids and Teens: Anger and How to Be the Boss of Your Brain: Anger is an emotional and physical response. When something happens to make you angry, your brain thinks it has to protect you from danger so it releases chemicals – oxygen, hormones and adrenaline – to fuel your body so it can fight the threat or run from it.

Social Emotional Development Checklists for Kids and Teens

10 Tips to Help Your Child with Anger

Practical Steps for learning skills for Managing Your Feelings, includes material from The Self-Esteem Workbook for Teens: Activities to Help You Build Confidence and Achieve Your Goals by Lisa M. Schab, LCSW.

A helpful article about Anxiety in Kids

How to Explain Mindfulness to Kids

How to Practice Mindfulness with Kids

Blissfulkids.com is a website with many resources for understanding mindfulness and integrating mindful practices into your family.

Managing Big Emotions with Kids: Printable Resources has links to posters you can print out to post on the fridge door to help young children learn how to manage their emotions.

These YouTube videos are helpful to share with your child

An easy to understand YouTube vide for kids and their families explaining Why Do You Lose Control of Emotions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bKuoH8CkFc

Take 5 Breathing for Kids: YouTube Video (A technique for calming)

What Your Child Needs Most When They’re Angry: Helping Kids Manage Big Emotions (YouTube)

 

For parents of teens

Teen Flare-Ups: What You Need to Know to Make a Difference helps explain teenage brain development.

Hormones Affect How Teens’ Brains Handle Emotions explains the role played by testosterone in the teen brain.

That Teenage Feeling: Biological Clues to Quirky Teen Behavior

Experiencing Teen Drama Overload: Blame Biology includes an excerpt from the book Getting to Calm: Cool-Headed Strategies for Parenting Tweens and Teens.

Emotion Coaching: One of the Most Important Parenting Practices in the Universe

Help your teen by making sure they get enough sleep, limit screen time at night, diet, exercise, recognize signs of depression: Help with Teenage Mood Swings

Read this if you’re awake at night wonderful if you’re too tough on your teen: https://www.webmd.boots.com/a-to-z-guides/features/parents-unreasonable

What Adolescents Really Need from Parents explains how parents can help younger teens avoid depression and anxiety as they become more independent.

Keeping things in perspective and maintaining a sense of humor:

It’s a Magical World: 7 Essential Parenting Lessons From ‘Calvin and Hobbes’

( https://www.parentmap.com/article/parenting-lessons-inspired-by-calvin-hobbes)

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Further Reading: Emotional Regulation – A User’s Guide

Emotional regulation is the process of reorganizing, labeling and adjusting emotions. The term emotion regulation is used to describe one component of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy — which combines cognitive and behavioral therapy, incorporating techniques from various traditions and was developed to treat certain types of mental health issues. Learning how to self-regulate emotions is an important part of a child’s development, and as we know from experience and life-long quest.

The techniques formalized in DBT can be used by all of us to identify and change negative patterns of thinking. Basically, it provides ways to help get “unstuck” and shift how you think and act in a more positive direction. In addition to emotional regulation, the other components of the therapy are strengthening tolerance for distress and negative emotions, teaching mindfulness strategies and improving interpersonal effectiveness. To learn more about DBT specifically, click here.

What is Emotional Regulation

Emotional Regulation

Letting go and Thinking Differently: Change the way you think

4 Articles from Psychology Today on changing the way you think

7 Little Habits That Can Change Your Life, and How to Form Them

Tricks to Becoming A More Positive Thinker

Cheat Sheet for Finding Your Funny Bone: 15 Funniest Websites for the Best Humor on the Web

Self-Care

TedTalk: The Importance of Self-Care

Self-care is Active Participation in Enhancing the Quality of Your Health

 

Controlling Anger

10 Steps for Controlling Anger

Strategies for Controlling Anger

 

Active Listening and Better Communication

Click here to take a deeper dive into this topic with additional readings focusing on developmentally appropriate ways of using active listening skills in your family

The Skill of Listening

7 Ways to Reinforce Active Listening at Home

 

Mindfulness

Click here to read two related COPETalk: Mindful Parenting: Getting Your Emotions Under Control and Can Meditation Positively Impact Your teenager? It Absolutely Can! There are additional links at the end of each article.

Benefits of Mindfulness

Free Mindfulness Apps

Free web-based guided meditations

All It Takes Is 10 Mindful Minutes

Breathe. Exhale. Repeat: The Benefits of Controlled Breathing

Bill Murray’s Surprising Wish + Meditation

Further Reading: A Deeper Dive

 

Emotional Regulation

The 5-Point Scale and Emotional Regulation

More information about the cycle of thoughts, behavior and feelings

 

Letting go and Thinking Differently: Change the way you think

Forget Positive Thinking: This Is How to Actually Change Negative Thoughts For Success

Cognitive Restructuring: Reducing Stress by Changing Your Thinking

PTSD COACH ONLINE: Changing negative thinking patterns

Critical Thinking in Everyday Life: 9 Strategies

Active Listening

Active Listening with Toddlers and Pre-schoolers

Active Listening: How to Master the Skill That Will Make You a More Effective Parent

Preventing Teen Drug Use: How to Talk with Your Teen

Talking and Active Listening with Your Teen

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Further Reading: Successfully Launching an Independent Young Adult

Watch the Julie Lythcott Haims’ TEDTalk How to Raise Kids Without Over Parenting and check out her book How to Raise An Adult
Grown and Flown: Parenting Never Ends is a website for parenting teens and young adults from high school through the college years.
It’s not too early to start practicing:

The Six Things You Shouldn’t Say to Your Adult Child

The following articles are geared to parents getting ready to send their child off to college.

How to have the pre-college conversation before you’re in the car driving them there.
Launching Conversations: Tips for Parents of College-Bound Kids

Letting go: Tips for Parents of New College Students

Launching your College Student

Feeling melancholy about your child going off to college?
Struggling to Let Go of My College-Student Daughter

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Further Reading: Can Meditation Positively Impact Your Teen

Guided meditation apps your teen might enjoy:

  • Insight Meditation Timer. This app is great if you are new to meditation. It offers introductory guided meditations and a supportive community to help you get started. Experienced meditators will feel right at home with beautiful Tibetan singing bowls and guided meditations by experienced teachers.
  • Stop, Breathe, and Think. This it opens with a short questionnaire where the users several questions specific to their mood, emotions, and physicality. The app recommends guided meditations for their current state.
  • Smiling Mind. Designed for is designed specifically for adolescent use. Smiling Mind is meditation made easy. Smiling Mind is a unique web and App-based program developed by a team of psychologists with expertise in youth and adolescent therapy, Mindfulness Meditation and web-based wellness programs. Guided Meditations are categorized for ages ranging from “bite size” to adult.
  • Take a Break! Not necessarily just for teens, but this provides short guided meditations for stress relief. Young people just starting out with meditation may prefer guidance. Listeners will be able to enjoy the deep relaxation, stress relief and benefits of meditation now with this app by Meditation Oasis.

Free web-based guided meditations:

UCLA Web Based Meditations

Center for Mindful Learning

Mindfulness for Teens

Teen Meditation Techniques

 

Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of teens, parents, and professionals. Through mindfulness retreats, iBme helps participants cultivate awareness, compassion, and kindness for themselves, others, and the natural world.

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Further Reading: Thoughts For A Safe Holiday

Thoughts for a Safe Holiday
Additional resources

National Impaired Driving Prevention Month

National Directory of Designated Driver Services

DrinkingandDriving.org

 

For college students and young adults

Party Smart: How to Stay Safe While You Have a Good Time

 

Hosting Safe Celebrations

Vacation Holiday Travel Tips

Safe Celebrations Tips for Party Goers and Social Hosts

 

Great non-alcoholic cocktails:

No Booze? No Problem

Non-Alcoholic Cocktails

50 Mocktail Recipes

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