Parent Coaching: Chill, Tone Down, Get Down

Question : Doctor . Cale, I have been reading your articles and have spent time on your internet site. I think that I have a feeling of your approach for developing a good relationship with my youngsters along with being more action orientated when the situation requires it. But I was lately at my brother's marriage, and my twins, 7-year-old boys, started to get unruly at the walk thru dinner. They were having funbut it was distracting. I ended up getting awfully annoyed and annoyed. Yet, it was troublesome for me to consider taking them to the auto for the sort of time out you have recommended. Have you got some other concepts about this?

Steven, divorced dad of two

Steven, This is a great question . In the event that your boys' behaviour was actually beyond control, it sounds a little bit like you know what my advice would be.
It'd be take the boys out to the auto, and have a "timeout" in the auto. Nevertheless I gather that their behaviour wasn't yet intense, and you are looking for a technique to interrupt in the instant, to help a change in their behaviour.

Steven, I'm going to proffer 3 straightforward rules for you to be aware of.

One. Chill or Calm Down.
Relax Steven, this is for you and the boys. Internally, ask to "Calm Down." Repeat this to oneself a number of times before you step in. You will be much better with your boys, if you approach them in a way where your voice is calm, reassuring, and firm. The more that you seem to be irritated, frenzied, or maybe feeling out of controlthe more that your boys will feed off that foreboding. Next, use the words "Calm Down" as your "magic words" for your boys. There's adequate research to debate it's vital to give your boys clear direction about where you would like them to go and not concentrate on where they've been. To explain, if you state "Stop struggling with your brother"you centered their attention on hitting. Against this, when you assert, "Calm down"you focus their attention on the direction you need them to go in.

Two. Tone Down
Whenever we become concerned, our vocal cords constrain, and our tonality starts to go up. This is a clear reflection of anxiousness.
So keep you tone down. As importantly, as highlighted in the most recent best seller by Malcolm Gladwell, titled "Blink," the mind is more reactive to the sophisticated ( i.e, comatose ) facets of communication then to the direct aspects. There's research to proffer that we give, and we reply, to sentences with a downward movement in their tonality. So when you talk with your boys in these scenarios, make certain that your tonality goes from a standard tone when you use the word "Calm"to a lower tone when you use the word "Down." This sophisticated change in tonality will change your youngsters in ways which actually can seem to be enchanting.

Three. Finally Get Down.
Get down on their level. When you're communicating something vital, get down on one knee and look them in the eye. It communicates respect. It communicates significance ; and it is a deeper level of connection. Get their eye contact. Talk quietly, but with certainty and keep your tone down. When you mix all 3 of these, you move into a way more forceful position of influence. I believe you will find your children will reply well. Remember calm down tone down and get down.

You can't get it wrong with this kind of deferential communication.

If you’re interested in more great parent coaching, visit my website with hundreds of articles on parenting at http://terrificparenting.com/parent-coaching . My name is Randy L. Cale, Ph.D., and I am the author and creator of Terrific Parenting and all the materials contained on the website. If you’re interested in reproducing this article, you can do so without my permission provided that all identifying information is retained with the article.

The Visualization Secret to Your Child’s Sports Success

As a parenting coach, and psychologist who works with kids engaged in all levels of sports, I remain amazed by the lack of appreciation for the value of visualization. Visualization has been studied extensively in many sports, and its power and usefulness is unquestioned.

Yet, few coaches teach their athletes to use visualization. I also find that few parents are rarely aware of the power of visualization, and are uncertain about how to use it. Here are a few simple tips.

Visualization tip number 1: Visualize confidence first.

Rather than using visualization to immediately work on skill development, it’s wise to teach your kids to use their imagination to nurture their own self confidence. Ask your kids to imagine watching themselves on a TV screen, and visualize themselves walking onto the playing field, or performing a particular sports related action with a sense of looking confident and strong.

Have them first see themselves as a player on the screen looking confident and feeling confident.

Then, ask your kids to imagine stepping into that confident player’s body. So the second step involved being your body, and feeling what it feels like to be confident and to be strong.

Give your kids coaching in how to both see themselves as a TV camera would see them in visualizing confidence, followed by stepping into their own body, and feeling what it’s like to walk in that body and feel that confidence.

Visualization tip number 2: Visualize learning over perfect performance.

Particularly when your kids are getting better at a sport, it doesn’t make sense to have them visualize perfect performances. It’s as if part of their brain doesn’t believe that.

So instead, have them visualize themselves getting better and better. With each daily practice of their visualization, ask them to find ways to see themselves just getting a little bit better each and every day. They can do this both in the in season and the off season.

After they are able to visualize themselves getting better and better while watching this on a imaginary TV screen in their minds???? Ask them to again step into that player that they see on the screen. In other words, step into their body and visualize what it’s like to be in that body as they’re learning and getting better and better with each session of practice.

Visualization tip number 3: Visualize you’re recovering from mistakes.

This is probably the most critical skill your kids can learn to master, if they’re going to reach any level of competency athletically. They need to realize that everyone will make mistakes, and it’s not the mistakes that will ultimately hurt them, it will be their inability to bounce back from those mistakes.

So by now you have a sense of the formula. Simply apply this formula so that your kids begin to visualize themselves making a mistake, and continue with that same scene until they’re able to recover, and be back on top of their game.

There is nothing more powerful than giving kids the sense that they can make a mistake, and yet recover to perform at their best.

Use these three visualization secrets, and you’ll see that you can be a powerful aid in helping your kids to walk with confidence, learn to get better, be prepared to handle any athletic challenge.

If you’re interested in more great parent training, visit my website with hundreds of articles on parenting at http://terrificparenting.com/parent-coaching . My name is Randy L. Cale, Ph.D., and I am the author and creator of Terrific Parenting and all the materials contained on the website. If you’re interested in reproducing this article, you can do so without my permission provided that all identifying information is retained with the article.