8 ways to teach children to think before they act

Young children often act on emotions and often lead to inappropriate reactions. Teaching children to think before acting will help them better understand the relationship between themselves and those around them.

Dr. Lim Bom Leng, BL Lim Center for Mental Health, says young children often lack control in their actions. Therefore, you can begin to practice the habit of thinking before acting for your child and be a role model as soon as possible. Without early teaching, children will be more likely to be impulsive and unable to control their actions. It is never too early to teach your children to think, even if they do not understand, try to explain to them. Here are 8 ways to help your child think before he acts:

1. Determine their feelings

During development, young children often enjoy interacting with and experiencing new things. There are times when children feel overwhelmed because there are many things to learn that lead to acting on their instincts.

You should teach your children how to understand and control their emotions, and adjust negative emotions to positive ones. This helps to reduce impulses or make hurtful comments, hit people or act violent when angry.

Besides, you should teach your child how to express his or her feelings. If you don't know how to get started, you can tell your child a story or a movie. When children recognize the character's character, you will easily explain it to them.

2. Problem solving skills

You should teach your child to think about possible solutions instead of solving problems for them. Gradually, you will have a habit of thinking carefully before you act. In particular, with young children, you show them how to solve the problem, for example, when you want to urinate, I ask her to let them go out, not hold urine because it may rupture the bladder.

3. Control anger

Anger is the path to destruction and makes me unable to control my words. So, you teach your child how to control anger . This also means teaching children to think before acting.

4. Set up rules

You set rules in the family and children need to follow. For example, get up at 6:30 am, go to bed at 9pm, eat rice, need to focus, not eat while playing, eat and then play ... Although no one likes the rules, setting rules is very necessary for young. Following rules help children understand what can be done and what can't. Once they understand the rules, children will think before they act to avoid breaking the rules.

5. Do not indulge according to your child's wishes

Young children often want you to respond to their requests immediately. However, you should not indulge to your child's liking, but create conditions for them to promote themselves and try. For example, when your child wants to buy a toy, encourage him to save money to buy it or if he speaks 30 times in class, you will reward him with the toy.

This practice teaches children to wait patiently for results and teaches them to resist temptation. Also, when you want to offer your child prizes, focus on your child's efforts and tell them why you did this.

6. Involve your child in physical activities

Participating in physical activities will help children become healthier and they will also learn discipline, perseverance, teamwork, and planning to achieve goals.

7. Be a good example for you

You can teach them verbally, but young children only learn from what they observe. So if you want to teach your child to think before you act, you have to do this first. For example, you can easily get angry, yell when your child messes or when you teach your child to do school work that they don't understand. This shows you have no control over your emotions and makes it easier for your children to follow.

Every little action you take sends a message to your child. Therefore, you should pay attention to what you say and do.

8. Teach your child to think positively

When your child gets angry or hurts you, always try to stay calm. Try to have a peaceful conversation and let your child know that you are not accepting this behavior. Staying calm will make the conversation between you and your baby more effective and your child will imitate this as well. Also, don't forget to praise them when they control their behavior. This will help your child feel more confident.

The inability of children to control their emotions can be related to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or intellectual disability, autism disorder (ADD), obsessive-compulsive disorder, and even depression. . If you suspect that your child has any of the above conditions, take your child to see a doctor for an accurate examination and diagnosis. From there, the doctor will have an appropriate treatment for the child.