3 Easy Strategies for Dealing with Tantrums in Your Classroom

Hi everyone and welcome to this episode of the teaching behavior together podcast, today we are going to chat about dealing with tantrums. Tantrums can be rough in the classroom, they can really disrupt the lesson you are teaching as well as trigger other student behavior. Here are some of my go to strategies when dealing with tantrums. 

My first tip when dealing with a tantrum is to ask the child what they need. I would say something like “tell me (or whatever form of communication they use) what you need.” And wait. It might take a little bit of time, but I give the wait time necessary for them to process what I asked and identify what they need. At times they may not be able to identify what they need because they do not know what they need. It might seem like forever, because minutes during a tantrum, are like extra long minutes, but giving wait time can increase the likelihood you will get a response. If we keep asking questions and prompting, it might delay the student being able to tell us what they need. You might also ask something like “do you need a break or a walk?” if you think that would be more appropriate for the student. Give them a chance to identify what they need and allow them access. 

Next, if I have to give directions, I keep them as short as possible and I include what I want the student to do within the direction. I might say something like, I need you to walk over here.” Or something similar to that. If I am giving directions it is to keep the student safe. Maybe the tantrum is happening in the hallway and a class is about to come in from lunch, I want to maintain the safety and dignity of that student so I might direct them to a different location. If you give long or complicated directions the student probably will not be able to process them and it probably won’t help the tantrum, it might even make it worse. Keep verbal directives to a minimum as they require the student to process information which is challenging to do when they are elevated. 

Lastly, I model regulation strategies. Essentially you want to co-regulate with the student. Demonstrate some go to regulation strategies and wait it out with them. I know this can be really challenging, again minutes during a tantrum seem really long. Modeling a strategy can help students engage in that strategy and hopefully allow them to calm down their body. We want our students to be able to return to a state of calmness no matter how long that takes. Of course we want it to be sooner than later, but sometimes these things just take a while.

As a bonus time, teaching regulation strategies when students are calm is the best way to ensure they will have tools in their tool box to engage in strategy that will allow them to be successful at calming themselves. I highly suggest teaching and working on self-regulation on a regular basis in your classroom. If you need a calm down kit, there is a free one in the description of this podcast, download it today and set up a calm down corner tomorrow in your classroom.  

As always, I love it when you share with me how these tips work in your classroom over on Instagram. Let me know if your kids are loving the calm down kit! Chat with your soon.
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