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Take a Pause to Control Emotions

Tags

Social-Emotional Learning All Ages Strategy

Skills

Flexible Thinking Self-regulation Organization Social Awareness Attention

Take a Pause to Control Emotions

If your student is very emotional, sensitive or impulsive

Teach It!

  1. Objective: Students when upset or frustrated will learn cues to take a pause to help them calm themselves before reacting.
  2. Teacher Takeaways: As students develop self-regulation skills to manage challenging moments, providing them strategies and cues is essential. Support students in taking a 5-10 second pause before reacting when they are upset by finding an agreed upon cue to remind them. Various multi-modal prompts: a) Agree on a single key word such as "stop", "wait", "breathe", etc. The word needs to be obvious, so the student has less to process in the heat of the problem. b) Tap three times on the table, perhaps along with a word such as "stop", "wait", or "breathe". c) Place a hand lightly on the child's shoulder or back, provided the child is not overly-sensitive to being touched.
  3. Notes: Ideally, parents and teachers can work together and provide consistent support with a common cue to take the pause and provide positive feedback when the student reacts appropriately as a result.

Why It Works (the Science Of Learning)!

When we are emotional, we can make impulsive decisions. While some children learn to self-regulate on their own, others need more support. A gentle reminder to a more impulsive student can be the help he needs to take the time to calm down before responding. Over time, it will be important for the child to do this on his own, but there is nothing wrong with providing some adult support along the way.