Page 14 - Baby Sleep Miracle (Mary-Ann Schuler) : Flip It & Read It
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Here are the skills needed for your child to become an effective self-calmer:
→ Provide a model of what it looks and feels like to be calm.
→ Validate your child’s level of distress. Respond to him gently through
gestures and words.
→ Show your child how to calm down in many different situations.
→ Expand your child’s repertoire of self-calming strategies so that when one
fails, another one might work.
→ Help your child find activities that give him pleasure so that he can shift
from a distressed feeling to a positive one.
→ Once your child is calm, help him think through what caused his distress
and what he can do to make himself feel better next time it happens.
→ While he is distressed, help your child to decrease that feeling. Use
calming strategies that involve his cognitive abilities.
→ Help your child think of what the next step might be and remain focused
on accomplishing that goal.
© 2016 Mary-Ann Schuler - WWW.BABYSLEEPMIRACLE.COM 17
