Camilla McGill says kids over four still have tantrums. A 6-year-old melts down losing a board game, a 9-year-old storms off the cricket pitch when dismissed. Emotional regulation takes practice at every age, and toddler strategies work for older kids too.
Now, here is a myth. A child over the age of 4 shouldn't have tantrums. So I'm going to tell you something. It's just not true. Even as kids get older, they can struggle with big emotions and they can have meltdowns when things don't go their way. For example, my client Andrea's 6-year-old daughter gets so frustrated over losing a board game when she's playing with her sister that she says she can't let her play anymore. Or another client says that their 9-year-old threw his bat down and stormed off the cricket pitch when he was bowled out. None of this is abnormal, but it comes back to helping children with emotional regulation skills, or lack of them. So kids of all ages need help managing their feelings, and the strategies that we are talking about today work just as well for older children as they do for toddlers.
