Conscious discipline teaches children how to become in tune with their feelings and actions by helping them name and regulate their emotions, so they can be in tune with what causes their reactions. Caregivers who offer professional child care in Brooklyn often use this technique to help children regulate and learn about themselves more intuitively.

As we said, children can have difficulty naming their emotions, and that’s where you and other caregivers come in. When our child is feeling the emotional clinch of any situation, our best tool is empathy, so we encourage them to practice self-disciplinary behavior. That empathy should inform and encourage them that they are well within their right to have the emotions they have, but still should hold themselves accountable for their actions.

Using the Technique

When a child is triggered, they are experiencing fight-or-flight kicking in, which can make it easy to lash out instead of processing their own feelings. Help the child describe how their body is feeling: Are they feeling flushed, shaking, or tense? Start navigating any feelings they may be having: Are they angry, upset, jealous, or lonely? Discuss with them what their intentions or goals were at that moment.

This is not about dismissing a child’s untoward action on a person or a thing as permissible; this is about teaching a child that there is no shame in holding themselves accountable for their actions and making things right. That their feelings are valid, but also require responsibility and ownership over them. Whether consciously or unconsciously, mistakes happen. It is what your child does next and how they change their behavior that matters, so they can stay connected to themselves, their actions, and how they affect the community around them.

Reach Out

Searching for caregiving services in Brooklyn? Wonderschool child care resources can welcome your child into a judgment-free zone, where they can learn, explore, and play with other little learners like them. Our caregiver services offer you affordable Brooklyn child care, so you can watch your child’s imagination open up and thrive.