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When our 6-year-old daughter is trying something new and hard (homework, reading a hard word, video games, etc.) she can get into a cycle of frustration and anger that ends with her crying in a ball on the floor.
It starts with her making a mistake, and me correcting it. Normally she's successfully pushed through several hard points already or is tired going in. I've tried variations on "stop", "no", "wait", "hang on" and "just a second", but they all have the same result: a sharp burst of vocal frustration from her, followed by me realising where this is heading and trying to defuse it.
Along the way she may try and take the work somewhere I can't see, or try and complete it quickly even though it's incorrect. She'll complain about not understanding something, but not allow me to explain anything.
Things I've tried to stop the spiral:
- Suggesting taking a break
- Pointing out that it's easy to rub it out and try again
- Walking her through the problem from the start
- Shouting back (?!)
- Pointing out this always ends with her being upset and we should try to avoid that
- Using a calming tone of voice
- Suggesting I do it for her and she copies!
- Noticing when she's tired and prone to frustration and trying to stop the exercise early ("I can do it!") (maybe I can try more forcefully to do this? one time it ended with a similar tantrum)
It ends with her in full-blown tears and one of us leaving the room. It can take 30 minutes for her to calm down at which point she can normally do it.
Has anyone got any more tactics I could try?
2I find 'can i try' works when helping young children. Then you work on a solution together. – Terry – 2017-03-13T10:31:51.483
14One that my parents used to help me with my homework is to give an obviously wrong answer. That somehow triggered me into finding the correct answer immediately. It helped my problem solving ability and trained me to not always believe what people said... – ratchet freak – 2017-03-13T11:54:21.580
My father (English-speaker) used to correct me every time I tried to speak with him in English. So I just talked to him in Spanish and he would not have to correct me. Lots of frustration saved, but not the best way to learn a language. – roetnig – 2017-03-13T15:23:08.940
2So I don't yet have a 6yr old, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I would look at martial arts. She doesn't need to take the martial arts, but what you describe is the sort of channeling of energy into self discipline that martial arts are famous for. I could see looking into how martial arts teachers manage their classes of 1st and 2nd graders, and seeing if any of those techniques might apply well to your child. They just seem to be a decent place to look for such solutions. – Cort Ammon – 2017-03-13T18:15:29.770
2Not wanting to put as an answer as this is an aside to one - but make sure she knows that you also make mistakes and can see your reaction to getting things wrong (even if you have to slightly manufacture something) - even better if it can make her laugh so mistakes start moving away from being an issue (too much salt in cooking maybe?). – Rycochet – 2017-03-15T15:53:27.527
What the actual. I think you need to re-read the OP and understand that my daughter isn't getting anything out of the situation, @MickLH – tenpn – 2017-03-15T21:41:49.403
Sorry that was rude, but also you've fully missed that what she is getting out of the situation is exactly what she wants: Change. – MickLH – 2017-03-15T21:48:01.387
1upvote them </pun> – Félix Gagnon-Grenier – 2017-03-16T15:31:26.043