Lesson 1 — Handling Temper Tantrums

Teaching Guide

Materials

1. Teaching guide: Handling Temper Tantrums

2. Handout: Temper Tantrums

Preparation for the Lesson

1. Read the handout before presenting the lesson, perhaps marking or highlighting what you think are the most important points to stress.

2. Distribute the handout a week or so before the lesson and ask clients to read it in advance (if possible and if it seems appropriate for the client).

Suggested Lesson Outline

1. Sharing experiences

   Ask the parents to share experiences with temper tantrums—their own as children or as adults, their children's tantrums, and tantrums of other children or adults. Ask about the following:

   1. What specific situations or conditions led to tantrums?

   2. What general conclusion can you reach about causes of temper tantrums?

      Anger and temper outbursts are normal reactions to frustration—the person did not get or did not achieve what she/he expected or wanted. The situation is made worse by immaturity—not having learned better ways of coping with frustration. Children are especially likely to have anger outbursts when they have been exposed to adults who display temper themselves.

   3. In your experiences, what worked to control or calm the tantrum?

   4. What did not work to control or calm the tantrum? What were the results of these ineffective methods?

2. Dealing with tantrums

   1. Ask the parents to brainstorm some ways of dealing with temper tantrums. You may want to gently evaluate some of the suggestions they offer, based on information from the handout. You probably will want to do this in a gentle questioning way, asking "Why do you think that would work?" or "Why might that not work? (Refer back to what they already reported in response to Question 1d, above.)

   2. Review with the parents the points in the handout. Discuss with them whether they think these might work and how the ideas can be applied.

   3. Share other suggestions you have, from other things you have heard or read, or from your own experiences. Again, discuss with the parents whether they think these might work and how the ideas can be applied.

3. Preventing tantrums

   1. Ask the parents to brainstorm some effective ways of preventing temper tantrums in the future.

   2. Review with the parents some other suggestions from the handout, or other information or experiences you have. Discuss with them whether they think these might work and how the ideas can be applied.

Follow-up/Homework

1. Ask the parents to set a goal for handling temper tantrums and preventing temper tantrums—an idea, strategy, or tactic that they will try in the next couple of weeks. If they and you are comfortable with this, you might have them share their goal with you—in oral or written form. (This could be a good basis for evaluating the lesson.)

2. Whether or not they share their goal with you at lesson's end, check back with them in two or three weeks about how they did with their goal.

Application to Nutrition Lessons

You probably can readily apply the material to the foods/nutrition area, since it is not unusual for temper tantrums to result from children's desires for certain foods (cookies, for example) or dislike of certain foods (healthy meals, vegetables). Also, sometimes children become short- tempered about other matters because of hunger or energy problems.

References

For parents:

Tavris, Carol. Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion. Simon & Schuster, 1983.

Samolin, Nancy. Love and Anger: The Parental Dilemma. Viking, 1991.

Wiggins, J. G. Dealing with Temper Tantrums. Personal Growth Press, 1969.

For children:

Hapgood, Miranda. Martha's Mad Day. Crown Publishers, 1977.

Preston, E. The Temper Tantrum Book. Viking Press, 1969.

For teacher:

Schaefer, Charles E. and Howard L. Millman. "Temper Tantrums," How to Help Children with Common Problems. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1981, pp. 293-303.

Wiggins, J. G. Dealing With Temper Tantrums. Personal Growth Press, 1969.

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