Creating an Anger Control Plan

The basic idea in developing an anger control plan for a child is to try many different strategies and find the anger control techniques that work best for them..  This is an ongoing process.  As working strategies are identified,  they can be added to the anger control plans and used the child starts to feel angry.  Some people refer to their anger control plans as their toolbox and the specific strategies they use to control their anger as their tools. This analogy may be very helpful. You can take this even further by creating a physical box for the child to put the strategies in (written on pieces of paper).  You could be really creative and have the pieces of paper shaped like various tools.  Again, it is important to identify the specific anger control strategies that work best for the child. These strategies should be put down in a formal anger control plan for referral when the child encounters an anger-provoking event.  It is also important to explore how different techniques may be used at different times.  Refering back to the toolbox, I point out how a screwdriver can be very useful, but not for pounding in nails.  Application- A child may feel better after running around in the yard, but this may not be possible when he or she is getting angry at something in the classroom.  Strategies need to be in place to handle the different situations that may arise.

An effective strategy that many children use, for example, is to talk about their feelings with someone that they can trust, such as a parent or caretaker.  By discussing anger, they can begin to identify the primary emotions that underlie it and determine whether the thinking and expectations in response to the anger-provoking event are rational. Often an outsider can see the event from a different point of view, and offer some guiding words of wisdom.  Children can sometimes view an event as unwinable, or unescapable, when there is a very simple solution which can be reached.

The long-term objective of the anger management treatment is to develop a set of strategies that can be used appropriately for specific anger-provoking events.

This leads us to the next section: "Time-Outs"

Click here to see how child anger management can be achieved through using music