self control
Self-Control & Resilience: Strategies Every Elementary School Counselor Should Use
Self-control is the ability to manage thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in order to make choices that align with goals rather than impulses. For elementary school students, self-control looks like waiting a turn, managing frustration, staying focused when distracted, pausing before reacting, and practicing patience even when things feel hard. How Self-Control Supports Resilience Resilience is…
Read MoreThe Strong-Willed Child
The Strong-Willed Child In a favorite comic strip, a little boy tells his Dad, “You’ll never be as smart as me Dad. Back when God built your brain…he was using older technology.” Pretty clever, huh? Probably hits home for many adults who rely on younger children to tweak their websites, blog posts and download all…
Read MoreWhat to Do About a Student with Angry Outbursts
Angry Outbursts: Prevention and Coping Skills On a School Counselor Facebook page, a school counselor asks for help with a 5th grader who regularly has angry outbursts over such things as forgetting his work at home or his Chromebook is missing from the class. During sessions focused on helping him calm down, he’s still very…
Read MoreAre Kids Less Disciplined than Ever?
Kids and Discipline If you have any connection to the educational system as I do, it’s not unusual to hear teachers complain that children today are much harder to teach than in years past. In fact, the job of the teacher has become so difficult that the average length of time that new teachers stay…
Read MoreSelf discipline and the marshmallow test…
How to help kids develop self discipline It’s a classic test of self-control and discipline; The Marshmallow Test was designed by Walter Mischel in the late 1960’s, children were given a marshmallow and told they could either eat it now or wait for a period of time and get two marshmallows to eat. The antics…
Read MoreTeaching kids to manage negative feelings
Kids and Self Talk A typical classroom lesson on recognizing feelings is useful and gives kids a common language for expressing their feelings. However, it is a basic lesson and doesn’t really cover all the bases in helping kids manage feelings, especially negative ones. What can we teach the child who needs anger management strategies or…
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