Need suggestions for a book to help with angry toddler...

wendysue

My son is having a difficult time with anger right now.  He has been biting at daycare and we think we now have that issue taken care of but his other actions are bothering us.  He gets very angry and will bite himself.  He bites himself harder than he has ever bit anyone else and we are worried that may seriously injure himself.  I have talked to the Peditrician and they tell us it is a phase he will outgrow but we are trying different things on our own to help him through it now.

 I would like to get some books about being angry that he can relate to and will give us examples of things he can do to deal with his anger in those situations. Any suggestions you may have would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

KathrynMD

do you really need a book for this?  I'd just think of different ways he can express anger appropriately and talk about it, alot!

 

tarebear9891

I would concentrate on teaching him to separate himself when he gets angry. We call it a "break" not time out. You may have to separate him at first from the situation but eventually (maybe awhile) he will learn to go take a break on his own. Teach him to describe his emotions so he can identify them. Give him praise, treats, etc. when he calms himself down or goes to take a break on his own.

Harper'smom

tarebear9891:

You may have to separate him at first from the situation but eventually (maybe awhile) he will learn to go take a break on his own. Teach him to describe his emotions so he can identify them. Give him praise, treats, etc. when he calms himself down or goes to take a break on his own.

All of this. DD gets pretty worked up too but she's a head banger not a biter (anymore). Some things that have helped us are working with her to teach her to say and sign "I feel mad". We don't use a real sign, we just taught her to pat her chest but it helped connect the words for her. We also use her magnadoodle and draw faces of happy, sad, angry people, etc. to help her label feelings.

We did go through a biting stage last year and what helped us was giving her something that was o.k. to bite. We would say "If Harper feels mad and needs to bite it is o.k. to bite the chewy". Catching her in the act of biting and giving her the substitute helped but it is hard to do because it happens so quickly.

davis0905

https://www.mollybang.com/Pages/sophie.html

 This is a beautifully written book for kids about a girl who learns how to deal with anger in a healthy way. I used it as a therapist whenever I would work with kids.